An Italian parish has been ordered by a court to pay €59,000 in damages to a woman who claimed that the loud pealing of bells at the church next to her home had caused her "moral and physical harm" for 23 years. The woman, a retired teacher at Lavagna near Genoa named under Italian privacy laws only as Flora L, began her campaign against the Madonna del Carmine parish in 1985. Five years ago, she resorted to legal action, taking Father Stefano Queirolo, the parish priest, to court. Judge Pasquale Grasso, ruling in the woman's favour, ordered the parish not only to stop ringing the bells at at Madonna del Carmine, but also to lower the level of the bells at the Church of Santo Stefano, a hundred metres away. Not all residents of Lavagna agreed with the ruling, however. Mauro Armanino, head of tourism on the local council, said: "The sound of bells has marked the rhythm of life for generations, for believers and non believers alike."
An Italian parish has been ordered by a court to pay €59,000 in damages to a woman who claimed that the loud pealing of bells at the church next to her home had caused her "moral and physical harm" for 23 years.
The woman, a retired teacher at Lavagna near Genoa named under Italian privacy laws only as Flora L, began her campaign against the Madonna del Carmine parish in 1985. Five years ago, she resorted to legal action, taking Father Stefano Queirolo, the parish priest, to court.
Judge Pasquale Grasso, ruling in the woman's favour, ordered the parish not only to stop ringing the bells at at Madonna del Carmine, but also to lower the level of the bells at the Church of Santo Stefano, a hundred metres away.
Not all residents of Lavagna agreed with the ruling, however. Mauro Armanino, head of tourism on the local council, said: "The sound of bells has marked the rhythm of life for generations, for believers and non believers alike."
this happens in the UK as well, people moving into country villages and then start virulent campaigns against this, that or the other that's been going on for centuries before these loonies arrive. keep to the Fen Causeway
"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Taught me to make sure to find out who my neighbours are on all sides of the building.
