When I was going to public school in Austria in the 1990s, there was a cross in every classroom. Where I went to elementary school in rural Lower Austria, everyone and their parents were from the same region. It was assumed you were Roman Catholic. The local priest came in twice a week to educate us about the faith. At the start of every term, the whole school went to mass at the church, which conveniently was located right next to the school. Attendance was compulsory.
A few years later, I moved to Vienna and went to high school there. The composition of the classrooms changed. There were students from Egypt, Hungary, India, Mexico, Russia and Turkey. While half were still Catholic, there were also Protestants, Muslims and those without religious affiliation. Why do I know so much about the religious affiliation of my fellow students? Because we still had several hours set aside every week for compulsory religious instruction. The Catholics were split from the Protestants and each group went to a separate classroom to learn about their faith. None of the other faiths had enough adherents to warrant their own instruction, so they were all released to spend their time however they pleased.
Nobody ever remarked about this or the ever-present crosses in the classrooms. I assumed things had changed in the quarter century since then, but when I enquired, I was told that the crosses were still there, and they law mandating them in public schools was still in place. Education is not the only area where there is incomplete separation between church and state. There’s a mandatory tax of around 1% of incomes that the state raises from Catholics and Protestants, passing the proceeds on to the churches. When the precursor of this tax was introduced in the 18th century by a secular-minded Austrian emperor, he intended to take away the power of the church to raise its own money directly. Today the tax, and the classroom crosses, and the compulsory religious education feel like the relics of a time when faith played a bigger role.
Nehaveigur 