"Christmas" and "Mary and Joseph" are not to be named

"Christmas" and "Mary and Joseph" are not to be named RP ONLINE - Yesterday at 18:49 Brussels/Vatican City. An internal document of the EU Commission with wording instructions for the upcoming Christmas has led to criticism and incomprehension on the part of the Catholic Church. According to the manual, words such as Christmas and biblical names should be avoided. While the intention to keep oral and written language non-discriminatory is to be welcomed, it was said in a statement of the EU Bishops' Commission COMECE from Tuesday. But by recommending to EU Commission staff that they refrain from using phrases such as "Christmas holidays" or "Christian names" in their communications, it said, the impression is created "that some passages of the draft document are marked by an anti-religious bias." "Christmas is not only part of European religious traditions, but also of European reality," stressed COMECE President Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich. "Respect for religious diversity cannot lead to the paradoxical consequence of eliminating the religious element from public discourse." The debate was initially launched by the right-wing populist Italian daily Il Giornale, among others. According to the newspaper's report, the EU document advised against using the names "Mary" and "John" in addition to "Christmas." "It's not a question of right or left. It is a question of religious freedom and respect for the role of religion in the political sphere," COMECE Secretary General Manuel Barrios Prieto told Catholic News Agency. "We would have expressed ourselves in the same way if the issue had been raised by media of other political orientations. Of course, we distance ourselves from any kind of instrumentalization of religion." According to the internal document, which became public a few days ago, EU Commission employees were called upon not to assume that everyone is a Christian and celebrates Christian festivals accordingly. Therefore, the manual encouraged them not to speak of the Christmas season and to avoid the biblical names "Mary and Joseph." The EU communication manual had been withdrawn on Tuesday. EU Equal Opportunities Commissioner Helena Dalli announced that the current version would be revised. Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin called it a wrong way to avoid expressions like "Christmas" or "Mary" in the fight against discrimination. "The tendency, unfortunately, is to standardize everything and not even respect legitimate differences," the cardinal said. Differences - in religious beliefs, for example - should not become a source of discrimination, but they must be integrated. Nor should Europe's Christian roots be forgotten, he said. "Of course we know that Europe owes its existence and identity to many contributions, but we must not forget that one of the most important contributions, if not the most important, was Christianity itself," Parolin said. Therefore, he said, denying the difference and the roots would ultimately amount to destroying the person. ------------------------------------------ Wolfgang Hampel, Satire is my favorite animal and the author's greatest concern Satire is my favorite animal by Wolfgang Hampel always makes me laugh, even when my day was very humble. When asked what his biggest worry is, Wolfgang Hampel says he fears that reality will overtake satire and he will become unemployed. I have no fears there. This author can think of something for everything. Hopefully there will be new fireworks soon. I'm really looking forward to it.---------- You can order one of the most humorous books ever----------------------- Satire is my favorite animal by Wolfgang Hampel:------------- national & international--------------------- USA , United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany