Rome, Italy, Oct 4, 2011 / 11:56 am

The Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano has criticized a decision by the BBC television network to drop its usage of the designations “A.D.” and “B.C.”

The network plans to adopt the terms “C.E.” (Common Era) and “BCE” (Before the Common Era) when referring to historical dates, to avoid “offending” non-believers.
 
L’Osservatore Romano called the decision “senseless historical hypocrisy.” Numerous BBC hosts, as well as politicians such as the mayor of London, Boris Johnshon, have also denounced the plan as absurd.
 
In an Oct. 5 article that will be published by the Vatican newspaper, reporter Luceta Scaraffia pointed out that numerous non-Christian spokespersons have stated that they “did not feel offended in any way by the traditional dating system.”
 
“It is clear that respect for other religions is a mere pretext, because what they want is to wipe out any trace of Christianity from western culture.”
 
Scaraffia noted that this is not the first time an attempt has been made to change the historical designations. The anti-Christian French Revolution of 1789 and the 1917 Leninist revolution in Russia both included efforts to reformulate the traditional calendar to start over again in their respective years.
 
She called those efforts “horrible precedents” and said the current proposed change is a hypocritical move on the part of those who “seem to not know why the years are counted starting from a certain date.” 

“To deny the historically revolutionary role of the coming of Christ on earth, accepted even by those who do not recognize him as the Son of God, is a complete folly. And from a historical point of view, both Jews and Muslims know it.”
 
She pointed out that with the coming of Christ, mankind learned that all human beings have the same dignity, and this truth forms the basis “for all human rights, by which nations and leaders are judged.

“Until that time no one had held this principle, and Christian tradition is based upon it.”
 
The world changed after Christ, Scaraffia continued, and knowing the God who transcends nature, “made it possible for the peoples of Europe to discover the world and for scientists to begin the experimental study of nature, which led to the birth of modern science.”
 
“Why deny, then, civilization’s cultural debt to Christianity? There is nothing more anti-historical and senseless, as Jews and Muslims have clearly understood. It’s a matter of reason, not of faith.”