Jesus existence on trial
A few weeks ago, Italian priest Enrico Righi (76) was accused of abuse of popular belief and impersonation.
The plaintiff is Luigi Cascioli (72), who lives in the same town as Righi. They even went to the same seminary school when teens.
However, they took separate roads. Very different roads. Righi became a priest, while Cascioli a vocal atheist.
The abuse of popular belief accusation appears when Righi, in his parish newspaper, wrote about Jesus as a historical character. Cascioli said: “In my book, ‘The Fable of Christ,’ I present proof Jesus did not exist as a historic figure. He must now refute this by showing proof of Christ’s existence,”.
The second charge, impersonation, is also commented by Cascioli: “The Church constructed Christ upon the personality of John of Gamala,”. John of Gamala was the 1st century Jew who fought against the Roman army.
Presenting these charges, Cascioli isn’t putting only Righi on trial, but the whole Roman Catholic Church.
“It would take a miracle to win,” Cascioli joked weeks ago. Well, this Italian atheist just lost his crusade so no miracles for him.
The judge rejected his attempts to sue Enrico Righi. But it’s not over yet. There are two reasons:
- Cascioli plans to appeal to Italy’s highest court, and then to The Hague.
- Bruno Severo, priest Righi’s lawyer, said that the judge recommended magistrates investigate Cascioli for slandering Righi.
“Thank God it’s over,” Righi told Reuters. “I’m glad it has ended like this, because imagine if it had gone on and on.”
With all these references made by Cascioli to his own book, “The Fable of Christ”, I’m sorry but I can’t help to wonder if this was all a publicity stunt by this novel author…
Full story on ABC: The trial and the judge’s decision
Moneybags said,
February 12, 2006 @ 4:53 pm
This is great that he lost this court case. How sad that someone would do such a thing to Our Lord. He needs prayers.
And, by the way, very nice blog. Please visit mine if you can.
Julian said,
February 12, 2006 @ 7:01 pm
You are certainly right Moneybags, like I said, it’s probably to sell more copies of his book.
Oh, and thank you for your kind comments. Your blog seems great.
Harold Barnett said,
June 4, 2006 @ 3:49 am
The idea that everyone who lived in the first century has to be in a history book or they didn’t live is stupid. Hillel is not mentioned in any history book that I know of, and yet he went on to become one of the most famous rabbis, with a modern foundation named after him. Historians of that time did not, as is still the case today, write about everything, but specialized in certain fields. Some wrote about rulers, some about sports, but very few wrote about religion. To them, Jesus, a carpenter from a poor province, was not seen as important. The same can be seen today. How many people had heard about Jim Jones before the mass suicide in Guyana, or David Koresch before Waco?
Harold Barnett said,
June 4, 2006 @ 4:52 am
To add to my first letter: One of the things that this Italian atheist claims is that Jesus was actually copied from the life of a man named John of Gamala. According to Wikipedia, John of Gamala was a fictitious person used in a book called “From The Temple.” It was written in the 19th century by a man named GA Henty, and he even says that John of Gamala is a fiction. To compare Jesus to him is like comparing Jesus to Ben-Hur or Spiderman! If anyone is engaged in a hoax, it is this guy - not the Catholic Church!
Rirath said,
April 11, 2008 @ 1:03 am
After working all day I visited this website and guess what? I sound this source and I don’t feel tired any more! It’s the best entertaining source!