Pope Francis launched a stunning rebuke of the European Union’s recent discriminatory attitudes towards Christianity.
In a recent communique from the EU, its ‘Commissioner for Equality’ Helena Dalli, had instructed her staff not to wish one another a ‘Happy Christmas’.
This came despite Dalli regularly wishing people a ‘Happy Eid’ in celebration of the Islamic festival.
After a backlash at the bigoted suggestions, Dalli withdrew them, but stopped short of apologising.
Now, in his pre flight press conference on the way back from Greece, Pope Francis has spoken out strongly against the aggressive suggestions from Ms. Dalli and from the European Union.
He compared her initiative to the worst excesses of Communism and other secular leaderships like Nazism and Napoleon.
Pope Francis stated:
You refer to the European Union document on Christmas... this is an anachronism. In history many, many dictatorships have tried to do so. Think of Napoleon: from there... Think of the Nazi dictatorship, the communist one... it is a fashion of a watered-down secularism, distilled water... But this is something that throughout hasn’t worked.
But this makes me think of something, talking about the European Union, which I believe is necessary: the European Union must take in hand the ideals of the founding fathers, which were ideals of unity, of greatness, and be careful not to take the path of ideological colonisation. This could end up dividing the countries and [causing] the European Union to fail. The European Union must respect each country as it is structured within, the variety of countries, and not want to make them uniform. I don't think it will do that, it wasn't its intention, but be careful, because sometimes they come, and they throw projects like this one out there and they don't know what to do; I don't know what comes to mind... No, each country has its own peculiarity, but each country is open to the others. The European Union: its sovereignty, the sovereignty of brothers in a unity that respects the individuality of each country. And be careful not to be vehicles of ideological colonisation. That is why [the issue] of Christmas is an anachronism.
The European Union caused further distress to Catholics this past week when one of its ambassadors mocked Our Lady by dressing up as here with a beard, suggesting that she may well have had one.
The EU is yet to apologise for that offensive gesture either.
