In February, patients in the surgery unit of a public hospital in Bad
Soden, Germany, watched as hospital workers moved methodically through
the unit taking down 12 crucifixes that hung on the walls of the
Protestant-run institution.
The workers then threw the crosses into
trash bags.
Why were the crosses removed?
Because a Muslim patient had complained
and the hospital had reason to think it might be sued if the crosses
were kept hanging.
In November 2008, a veteran family law judge in Murcia, Spain was
fired, fined the equivalent of nearly $25,000, and barred from
practicing law for 18 years.
His crime?
He delayed the adoption of a little girl by the lesbian partner of the girl’s mother.
Judge Fernando Ferrín Calamita, 51, a practicing Catholic and father
of seven, made a legal argument that he was acting in the child’s best
interest and in conscientious objection to Spain’s adoption laws.
These were among dozens of examples of religious intolerance against
Catholics and other Christians documented in a new report by the
Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in
Europe.
The 40-page study was released at the observatory’s headquarters in
Vienna, Austria on Dec. 10. The report comes just days after the
conclusion of a summit of European leaders in which a top Vatican
official urged leaders to pay more attention to discrimination against
Christians.
While religious persecution and intolerance are usually associated
with dictatorships or regimes run by religious extremists, the report
details the rise of a secularist attitude in European societies that
increasingly leads to intolerance against Christian beliefs.
The Observatory’s director, Dr. Gudrun Kugler, said the abuses
included the denial of Christians’ rights to free speech and freedom of
conscience.
“Religious freedom is endangered especially with regard to its public
and its institutional dimension,” she said. “We also receive many
reports on the removal of Christian symbols, misrepresentation and
negative stereotyping of Christians in the media, and social
disadvantages for Christians, such as being ridiculed or overlooked for
promotion in the work place.“
Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi said the new report “deserves attention.”
"It is a base on which to judge the dimensions and the nature of the
phenomenon” of intolerance and discrimination” he said in an editorial
aired on Vatican television.
A great many of the cases the Observatory cite involve Christians
being punished for expressing their beliefs about homosexuality and
defending their beliefs in traditional marriage.
Often, the report said, anti-discrimination laws are applied in such a
way that “causes indirect side-effect discrimination of Christians.” In
addition, the report said, “Hate speech legislation has a tendency to
indirectly discriminate against Christians, criminalizing core elements
of Christian teaching.”
For instance, in July, Spain’s socialist government, which backs gay
“marriage,” fined a Christian television network 100,000 euros for
running a series of advertisements in favor of the family and opposing
the homosexual lifestyle.
Also in recent years, the commission reported, bishops in Belgium and
Scotland faced threats of prosecution from members of Parliament for
defending the Church’s teaching on marriage.
The report also raises questions about the neutrality of the European
Court of Human Rights, which has gained increasing authority with the
push for European unification.
The court, for instance, has ruled that
crucifixes displayed in Italian schoolrooms violates students’ religious
freedom.
The report also cited a 2009 case in which the Catholic University of
Milan decided not to renew the contract of a professor who declared in
class that Christianity promoted “unmerciful dogmas” and declared
original sin to be a “fiction.”
The professor also said that “Jesus was
through and through a bad human being” and that the Gospel was the “most
frightening message ever made known to mankind.”
Later in 2009, the human rights court said Italy had violated the
professor’s right to freely express his opinion — effectively placing
the professor’s rights to speech above a Christian institution’s rights
to preserve and promote its identity through its hiring practices.
The report also details a rising number of what it calls “hate
crimes” directed at Christians and Christian symbols, including arson
and vandalism of churches across Europe.
At the recently concluded meeting of the 56-nation Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe, held in Astana, Kazakhstan, the
Vatican’s top diplomat, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, echoed many of the
themes raised in this new report.
“It is well documented that Christians are the most discriminated and
persecuted religious group,” he said in an address to delegates.
“The international community must combat intolerance and
discrimination against Christians with the same determination with which
the it fights against hate with respect to other religious
communities," he added.
In his comments on the new report, Fr. Lombardi reminded listeners
that while Pope Benedict was in England this past September, he also
expressed his "concern at the increasing marginalization of religion,
particularly of Christianity ... even in nations which place a great
emphasis on tolerance."
The new report, he said, is an opportunity for reflection and
commitment, "not only from those who work for the defense of
Christianity and its values, but also of all honest people truly
desirous of protecting the values of tolerance and freedom of expression
and religion."
SIC: CNA/INT'L