Vatican targeted by Europe more than Cuba or China for “violations” of human rights

Madrid, Spain, Jul 16, 2006 / 22:00 pm

In an interview with the Spanish weekly, “Alba,” the director of Aid to the Church in Need in Italy, Attilio Tamburrini, said a devious persecution against Catholics exists in Western countries and has resulted in the Vatican being accused, more than Cuba or China, for supposed human rights violations.

Although the annual report by Aid to the Church in Need points to Asia as the region with the greatest persecution against Catholics, Tamburrini noted that “in countries ‘where nothing happens’ there is devious pressure from the predominant culture.”  “Religions are the cultural forms most denigrated by international organisms,” he stated, and the Catholic Church is considered the main enemy of human rights, “despite her promotion of them.”
 
Between 1994 and 2004, various European institutions have condemned the Holy See on 29 occasions for supposed violations of human rights, while Cuba has been condemned only 25 times and China just 15. 

Tamburrini decried the spread of “anti-discrimination” laws throughout Europe, saying in practice the laws have become tools for discriminating against Catholics and other Christians. “These are the laws that have made it possible for a Danish Protestant pastor to be sentenced to six months in prison for speaking about homosexuality in his church. Or for the Church’s ecclesial movements to be classified as dangerous sects by the French anti-sectarian laws of 1996. France has taken even further steps and since March 2004 has prohibited the public use of religious symbols, which has prevented priests from entering public schools,” the article in Alba noted.

Tamburrini maintained that the legal and political pressure is only made worse by the cultural pressure.  “The post-modern and contemporary culture presents de facto obstacles to the faith,” he said.  Therefore, “it is necessary that those who do not have faith begin to live as if God existed in order to recover the defense of man,” Tamburrini concluded.