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J.N.Darby
Registered Member
Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 124
| Posted 1/5/2006 8:28 PM (GMT -6) |   | http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1967413,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=World
Having read this article I felt pressed that perhaps I should bring it to the attention of other Christians who can bring it to the attention of even greater numbers of Christians, for the sake of praying for the people involved who are on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my hope that Christ will be vindicated and His critics shamed and silenced. It is my prayer that those on His side will be strengthened and given wisdom and proper resources and oratory skills on His behalf. Take care, and God bless.
The Times January 03, 2006
Prove Christ exists, judge orders priest
From Richard Owen in Rome
AN ITALIAN judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove
that Jesus Christ existed.
The case against Father Enrico Righi has been brought in the town of
Viterbo, north of Rome, by Luigi Cascioli, a retired agronomist who once
studied for the priesthood but later became a militant atheist.
Signor Cascioli, author of a book called The Fable of Christ, began legal
proceedings against Father Righi three years ago after the priest denounced
Signor Cascioli in the parish newsletter for questioning Christ’s historical
existence.
Yesterday Gaetano Mautone, a judge in Viterbo, set a preliminary hearing for
the end of this month and ordered Father Righi to appear. The judge had
earlier refused to take up the case, but was overruled last month by the
Court of Appeal, which agreed that Signor Cascioli had a reasonable case for
his accusation that Father Righi was “abusing popular credulity”.
Signor Cascioli’s contention — echoed in numerous atheist books and internet
sites — is that there was no reliable evidence that Jesus lived and died in
1st-century Palestine apart from the Gospel accounts, which Christians took
on faith. There is therefore no basis for Christianity, he claims.
Signor Cascioli’s one-man campaign came to a head at a court hearing last
April when he lodged his accusations of “abuse of popular credulity” and
“impersonation”, both offences under the Italian penal code. He argued that
all claims for the existence of Jesus from sources other than the Bible stem
from authors who lived “after the time of the hypothetical Jesus” and were
therefore not reliable witnesses.
Signor Cascioli maintains that early Christian writers confused Jesus with
John of Gamala, an anti-Roman Jewish insurgent in 1st-century Palestine.
Church authorities were therefore guilty of “substitution of persons”.
The Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius mention a “Christus” or
“Chrestus”, but were writing “well after the life of the purported Jesus”
and were relying on hearsay.
Father Righi said there was overwhelming testimony to Christ’s existence in
religious and secular texts. Millions had in any case believed in Christ as
both man and Son of God for 2,000 years.
“If Cascioli does not see the sun in the sky at midday, he cannot sue me
because I see it and he does not,” Father Righi said.
Signor Cascioli said that the Gospels themselves were full of
inconsistencies and did not agree on the names of the 12 apostles. He said
that he would withdraw his legal action if Father Righi came up with
irrefutable proof of Christ’s existence by the end of the month.
The Vatican has so far declined to comment. | | Back to Top | | |
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