Judge to Rule on Merit of Christ Case

By MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 46 minutes ago

VITERBO, Italy - An Italian judge heard arguments Friday on whether a small-town parish priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed.
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The priest's atheist accuser, Luigi Cascioli, says the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people for 2,000 years with a fable that Christ existed, and that the Rev. Enrico Righi violated two Italian laws by reasserting the claim.

Lawyers for Righi and Cascioli, old schoolmates, made their arguments in a brief, closed-door hearing before Judge Gaetano Mautone in Viterbo, north of Rome. They said they expected the judge to decide quickly.

Cascioli filed a criminal complaint in 2002 after Righi wrote in a parish bulletin that Jesus did indeed exist, and that he was born of a couple named Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth.

Cascioli claims that Righi's assertion constituted two crimes under Italian law: so-called "abuse of popular belief," in which someone fraudulently deceives people; and "impersonation," in which someone gains by attributing a false name to a person.

"The point is not to establish whether Jesus existed or not, but if there is a question of possible fraud," Cascioli's attorney, Mauro Fonzo, told reporters before the hearing.

Cascioli says the church has been gaining financially by "impersonating" as Christ someone by the name of John of Gamala, the son of Judas from Gamala.

He has said he has little hope of the case succeeding in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy, but that he is merely going through the necessary legal steps to reach the European Court of Human Rights, where he intends to accuse the church of what he calls "religious racism."

Righi, 76, has stressed substantial historical evidence — both Christian and non-Christian — of Jesus' existence.

"Don Righi is innocent because he said and wrote what he has the duty to say and write," Righi's attorney, Severo Bruno, told reporters.

He said he told Mautone during the hearing that Righi was not asserting a historical fact when he wrote of Jesus' existence, but rather "an expression of theological principles."

"When Don Righi spoke about Christ's humanity ... he was affirming that he needs to be considered as a man. What his name is, where he comes from or who his parents are is secondary," he said.

Fonza said he countered that there have long been questions of Christ's existence and that the matter warranted discussion in the court.

"When somebody states a wrong fact, abusing the ignorance of people, and gains from that, that is one of the gravest crimes," Cascioli told reporters.

Righi's brother, Luigi Righi, attended the hearing and said his brother was "serene but bitter."

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Anyone who is not for Christ is a what? anti-christ. My Bible says it and I beleive it is the WORD of GOD!

Thanks for the update! Praying God to intervene and turn this lunitic on his heels running the other direction. Personnaly, I think he is just trying to plug his book!

He needs to read in my Bible. Book of Revelation, Jesus is Victorious! the ac is a looser! Praisng God from who all blessings flow! RIGHT NOW.

I just had to add this thought. The Bible has been around for a long, long time....circa 2000 years for the New testiment and circa 4000 for the Old Testiment. His book has been out less than a year, and you would have me to beleive he knows more about God. A man who is a proclaimed, atheist! DUH! Don't atheists beleive that there is no God. He is spending way too much time trying to prove something that he thinks in his small mind, doesn't exist. God must really be working on him! He so afraid of God that he is taking it out on a preist? God is sooo good...to point these things out! If I don't beleive in something, I'm not going to waste a lot of time and money in court trying to prove my point. That is just crazy! What is he really afraid of here. MAYBE we need to pray that he will get saved and accept Jesus, during this court thingy! Now how's that for God turning a bad situation around and publicly too! Waiting and praying to see SALVATION AS THE OUTCOME!!!! How about us praying for another atheist coming to know the Sovernty of GOD!