La enseñanza de la religión en las escuelas públicas española e italianas: la diferente interpretación jurisprudencial de situaciones semejantes

Abstract

They are studied in this article the main differences between the way of teaching religion in Spain and in Italy. Both of them have started off a similar situation that entailed offering compulsory a catholic confessional teaching in their public schools. Nevertheless, as a result of a different jurisprudential interpretation, their legislative development has also been different in each State. In Italy, they have thought that alternative activities with catholic religion subject discriminated pupils who did not choose it. So, Courts and Legislature main attention has been paid to guarantee a non compulsory character of catholic teaching for everybody and, as a result, students that do not want to frequent it have no an obbligation of making other activities or remaining in school. It has been considered the best way of respectig students' religious liberty, in a context which the rest of religious denominations have not supplied -or, even they have turned it down- a confessional teaching of their doctrines in. In Spain, public schools have to offer catholic, evangelic, muslim or jewish confessional teaching. So, everybody that desires study them, can do it. Jurisprudence has tried to guarantee that pupils who study theese subjetcs are not discriminated by the fact of having a bigger number of hours of lessons every week than those ones who have not choose them. Besides, it has been tried to assure a whole education for every student through either this confessional study or through another activity which offers a good cultural or humanistic education. Starting off the study of that similar situation between Italian and Spanish Law, the author examines the criteria that have inspired these different results and if vigent rules respetc them.