ROME, August 16, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Pope Benedict XVI of the Vatican has pressed for the display of crucifixes in public buildings as well as in private homes.

"It is important that God is visible in public and private houses, that God is present in public life, with the presence of the cross in public establishments," the pontiff told a church congregation in Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence near Rome, Monday, August 15, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Wherever God disappears, man loses his dignity, falling victim to blind evolution, and for this reason may be abused and manipulated," he said.

"The modern era believed that in neglect and in following only our ideas and our will, we would become truly free, but that has not been the case," he said.

The pope's comments came three days before he was to travel to his native Germany to lead 400,000 young pilgrims from around the world in Catholic World Youth Days festivities.

Muslim activist Adel Smith in late 2003 won a court judgment ordering all crucifixes removed from his child's primary school in Ofena, central Italy.

The court backed his view that crucifixes were offensive to members of other religions as the controversy was likened to France's banning of hijab in public schools.

A higher court, however, overturned the decision, but not before arousing the ire of the Roman Catholic Church and Benedict XVI's predecessor, late pope John Paul II.

In December 2004, the issue loomed again when a woman of Finnish origin objected to religious symbols on classroom walls at her son's school near the northern city of Padua.

All religions are considered equal under the Italian constitution, but two decrees from the 1920s, confirmed by legislation in 1984, allow Catholic symbols in state schools.

Shortly afterwards, other European countries, chiefly Germany, followed the French lead.

The French ban, described by international rights watchdogs as amounting to religious discrimination, prompted demonstrations across Europe.