Most atheists and agnostics, I believe, are content to hold to their beliefs and grant religious people the freedom to practice their faith as they see fit. Then there are these guys, whose escapades are immortalized at the Web site of the Alliance Defense Fund:
A group promoting anti-religious causes has dropped a legal bid to end baptisms [of children] in Italy after an Alliance Defense Fund-allied attorney became involved on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church and a bishop.
“It’s unthinkable to ask the government to force the church to abandon one of its sacraments to appease a radical, anti-religious agenda, yet that’s what this activist group did,” said ADF-allied attorney Gianfranco Amato.
The Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics filed suit in an attempt to end the baptism of children in Italy. The group claimed that the practice encroached upon their religious freedom and violated principles stated by the Italian Constitutional Court pertaining to free will and personal privacy regarding religious decisions.
UAAR also claimed that because the law does not allow the parents to enroll their children in certain organizations, such as trade unions, the law also “does not allow, as well, that the parents may decide their children become members of a religious association.”
The plaintiff in the case, who sought to erase his name from a baptism register as a form of “debaptism,” withdrew his petition just before a hearing was set to take place. Amato convinced him to drop his lawsuit based on the fact that legal precedents would not support the UAAR’s demands.
“According to Italian law, the demand to remove a name from the register must be made by an individual with a personal interest, rather than by a private association such as the UAAR,” said Amato. “Also, it was easy to demonstrate that the group had no legal leg on which to stand.”
No word yet whether the American allies of the UAAR will be trying this tactic here.
The Reformed Pastor 
August 19, 2008 at 6:02 am
[…] una campagna di disinformazione sull’operato della UAAR. WorldNetDaily, Alliance Alert e The Reformed Pastor si arrampicano letteralmente sugli specchi nel tentativo di travisare il senso e diminiure la […]
August 19, 2008 at 6:52 am
UAAR ** DOES NOT ** ask for and end to baptism. As atheists/agnostics, for us baptism is just a meaningless rite. We just ask for our names to be erased from ecclesiastical records. UAAR even never had a legal cause about baptism. Therefore UAAR can not have dropped any legal cause, just because there never was one.
Throwing tons of lies against your opponents is not fair nor democratic.
Sorry for my English.
Carlo
August 27, 2008 at 5:13 am
If you tell lies, like the ones in this article, you go to hell – didn’t you know that?!?
August 27, 2008 at 8:46 am
No, since the Christian faith doesn’t teach that, I didn’t. But since you don’t believe in hell, why should I listen to a person, who is, by his own lights, lying himself?
August 30, 2008 at 8:32 am
[…] questi giorni un certo numero di siti cristiani USA (WorldNetDaily, Alliance Alert, The Reformed Pastor…) sta diffondendo la notizia che l’UAAR ha rinunciato a ottenere la messa al bando del […]
August 30, 2008 at 8:42 am
The real point of the issue in Italy is that UAAR is fighting to obtain the possibility for adult people to OPT-OUT (to use a common expression) from being considered baptized, if they decide so.
This should be considered obvious: if I am an adult and I ask you not to consider me a Catholic anymore you shouldnt insist about what my parents did on my name at my birth.
In fact, the Italian Catholic Church has long resisted, also because the number of baptized people is used to determine the amount of public money going to the Church (with a mechanism drawing money from contributors of all faiths and also with no religious faith).
Does anyone think that a person who was baptized at birth loses the right to have a say on his personal religious beliefs?
September 1, 2008 at 1:55 pm
This article contains incorrect and misleading information regarding the activities of our association, and in the interests of fairness and accuracy we request that you publish the following rectification:
– Your headline is erroneous and in fact a careful reading of account provided in your article fails to support your accusation. UAAR has never requested that the Italian government ban the rite of baptism.
– Furthermore, UAAR has never requested that the government proscribe the baptism of infants specifically.
– On the contrary, ten years ago UAAR did provide its support for a lawsuit filed by his former secretary seeking to establish that an adult who has been baptised as an infant (and who therefore is automatically considered by both the church and state to be a member of the church) can request to no longer be considered a member of the Catholic Church. As a result of this initiative, in 1999 the Garante italiano della privacy (the government office charged with protecting the information privacy of Italian citizens “in every sector of the social, economic and cultural spheres”) acknowledged this right.
– At present, individuals who have been baptised can file a request with their bishop for a certificate recognizing their wish to no longer be considered as belonging to the Catholic Church. In practical terms – since baptism in the eyes of the Church is an act that, like marriage, cannot be annulled – this request simply signifies that the individual no longer considers him/herself a member of the Catholic Church and as such, should no longer be subject to canon law, whose jurisdiction in the civil sphere has been legally recognized by an Italian court.
– Furthermore, the Garante recognized that this right pertains not only to atheists and agnostics, but also to members of other religions, including Christians who wish to obtain certification that they no longer belong to the Catholic Church.
– UAAR is also seeking – but has not yet obtained – the right to have his/her certificate of baptism cancelled by his diocese. On the general principal that an adult should have the right to ask that an act undertaken on his behalf by others be cancelled, UAAR contends that persons of adult age who no longer consider themselves Catholic have the legitimate right to request the cancellation of an act that they do not recognize and which was imposed on them when they were minors. This position does not in any way imply a desire that the baptism of infants be proscribed. We instead ask that individuals – once they have reach maturity and if they no longer consider themselves Catholic – be allowed to request that their act of baptism be cancelled by the Church, likewise the Catholic marriage can be declared null by the Rota Romana.
– On this point it is relevant to note that, in sentence no. 239/1984, the Constitutional Court of Italy established that an individual’s decision to join a religious community can only be considered valid if the decision was taken of the individual’s own free will.
– It is also pertinent to note that the baptism of children is criticized by various Christian denominations. We are convinced that it would be preferable for parents to leave their children free to choose their faith when they reach maturity, but clearly this is a decision that must be left to the parents themselves.
– It is obvious that, as non-believers, we do not believe in the spiritual effects of baptism. The rite nevertheless does have specific consequences in the eyes of Italian jurisprudence and affects the civil status of the individual. Baptised persons are considered to be subject to the ecclesiastical authorities; indeed, a sentence of the Appeals Court of Florence declared that they are subject specifically to the authority of their bishop. In Italian law, bishops have jurisdiction over the members of their diocese and can emit censures and condemnations based on the Code of Canon Law. This jurisdiction extends even to persons who no longer consider themselves to be Catholic (since the sacrament cannot be expunged). The only legal means for such individuals to remove themselves from this jurisdiction is through the formality of ‘de-baptism’.
– The sole initiative undertaken by UAAR with regard to de-baptism was a case tried before a court eight years ago, in 2000, and we are not aware that any Christian organization – in America or Italy – took any interest or action in the affair.
– Finally, that particular case was filed by an individual, our former secretary Lucian Franceschetti, and not by UAAR since in Italy such cases can only be brought by private citizens.
Trusting in your wish to publish only accurate information, we respectfully request that you post this rectification on your site.
Best regards
Raffaele Carcano
UAAR secretary (www.uaar.it)