Following UAAR’s recent press release titled “Escape from Catholic Religion Classes Isn’t Stopping”, which received widespread coverage in the Italian media, reactions were swift from Snadir, the autonomous national union of religion teachers, which represents 34% of religious education teachers working in Italian schools. Its national secretary Orazio Ruscica responds every year in an uncoordinated manner in an attempt to discredit the Uaar. This year too, Ruscica accused us, in the online newspaper Tecnica della Scuola, of having obtained the data “in a partial and suspicious manner,” pretending to ignore the fact that these are official figures from the Ministry of Education and Merit.
“For years, Ruscica has accused us of manipulating data”, says Roberto Grendene, recently reappointed Secretary of the UAAR, “of being intellectually dishonest, even of ‘creeping and unpleasant racism.’ Yet we are the only ones to freely make the figures obtained from the Ministry available. Ruscica should show us what we have manipulated, or keep quiet, instead of denigrating our association. Or he should complain to Valditara if he finds errors in the Ministry’s communications. Snadir should have the intellectual honesty to admit that those who teach Catholic religion are required by law to ‘provide teachings in accordance with the doctrine of the Church’ and receive their state salary thanks to a ‘backing,’ that is, the letter of suitability issued by the bishop at his sole discretion. This is the only case of hiring public employees through a blatant form of cronyism.”
A year ago, Orazio Ruscica argued that “the alternative hour should be an educational opportunity, not an excuse to leave school early,” and that students appreciate Catholic Religious Education because “they recognize its cultural value.” “To see if Ruscica is the usual innkeeper who claims his wine is good,” Grendene continues, “let’s launch a challenge: let’s introduce Catholic Religious Education during after-school hours, as it should be for an optional subject, and see who actually chooses to take advantage of it, and not under the threat of seeing their children aged 3-10 discriminated against. Obviously, he’s not even thinking of introducing Catholic Religious Education during after-school hours; instead, he wants to force them to stay in school, and he also wants to dictate what children who don’t take his doctrinal subject should do.”
In February 2024, UAAR launched the “Books for Those Entitled to Them” campaign, and within a year, the number of primary school classes in which children in alternative learning have a textbook paid for by the municipality, just like their Catholic religion textbook, has doubled. But we have evidence that the teachers chosen by the bishop opposed the principle that “even children in alternative learning have the right to a textbook to work from,” boycotting the initiative and calling guaranteeing alternative learning textbooks (curiously, not religion textbooks) a theft from the state. This year, in over 12,000 classes, every child not taking advantage of the Catholic Religious Education has received a textbook reimbursed with a book voucher.
Among the other attacks received in recent days, we should highlight the one from the Unione Sarda, which in an article published today, April 1, 2025, defines those who do not take religious education as no longer “exempt” (one cannot be exempted from an optional subject), but even “deniers.” The article gives ample space to the ravings of the Bishop of Oristano, who downplays the decline in enrollment as physiological and associates it with poor choices among adolescents, such as dropping out of school. At a rate of “just” 1.5% per year, the decline in students attending religious education will become increasingly serious. The Catholic Church and Snadir are well aware of this, and their concern is evident.
Press Release