Supreme court blasts church-tax furore

(ANSA) - Rome, July 27 - Giorgio Santacroce, the head of the Court of Cassation, on Monday blasted the furore that followed the supreme court's ruling that property tax should be paid by Catholic Church schools. Nunzio Galantino, the secretary general of Italian Bishops Conference CEI, criticised the ruling, telling ANSA on Saturday that it was "dangerous", "ideological" and would damage the right to educational freedom and threaten many Catholic schools.
    Santacroce said in a statement on Monday that the furore over the ruling on the city of Livorno's demand for payment of ICI, a property tax that has been replaced by another levy, from Catholic schools was "largely out of place".
    He added that the EU is probing Catholic schools' exemption from property tax in Italy on suspicion that it was State aid.