Vatican Says Freedom Of Expression Does Not Mean Offending Religions

Catholic News Service ^ | 2/6/06 | John Thavis

[steve-b]

What a pusillanimous abandonment of the principles of Western Civilization!

[BenLurkin]

TG 4 the 1st amendment.

[OldArmy52]

A Liberal outfit obviously...translation:...."you have right to free speech as long as noone objects to what you say."

Geez, it must be embarassing to be a Catholic.

[Pyro7480]

The Vatican bureaucracy is full of linguini-spined Europeans. One of them probably released this.

There are still many of us, though, who have the spirit of the Crusaders in us.

[onyx]

It's not.

Got one over here for you!

[conservatrice]

I wonder what they plan on doing about these images:

http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/euro_medi_ren/


From a church in Italy!

I'm completely disappointed with this statement.

[383rr]

From the vatican? Sounds like something broadcast from your local mosque.

[steve-b]

The Vatican bureaucracy is full of linguini-spined Europeans. One of them probably released this.

One hopes that the German in charge will get the French underlings into line. ;-)

[FormerLib]

Oh nonsense, reminding people to be polite in regards to certain topics is an abandonment of nothing!

Now, if the Vatican would just call on Islamic leaders to renounce violence, you could certainly accuse them of calling on someone to abandon their principles.

[The Great RJ]

The Vatican must be ignorant of the virulent antisemitism that is everyday fare in Muslim countries and being propagated in Saudi funded Muslim schools worldwide. Not to mention being ignorant of the hate speech and discrimination against Christians in Muslim dominated countries

[steve-b]

Oh, puh-leeze. These wimpouts aren't even internally consistent:

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told Vatican Radio that the ongoing demonstrations show how deeply Muslims have been offended by the depictions of their Prophet.

"We shouldn't diminish the love and respect Muslims have for their prophet Mohammed. This is very important for them and therefore cannot be the object of derision or ridicule," he said.

By the good Archbishop's own reasoning, he had no right to make a statement that so deeply offends my love and respect for the principle of freedom of speech and thought, and should therefore apologize for and retract it forthwith.

[Mr. Mojo]

At the same time, the Vatican said, violent reactions are equally deplorable.

Equally? So writing/publishing satirical religious cartoons is on equal footing with burning embassies, committing murder, threatening holocausts, etc.?

[pillut48]

Wait a minute--that means if I'm offended by this, I'm not supposed to burn down a cathedral?!?

Shoot. All dressed up and nowhere to go.

[steve-b]

Equally? So writing/publishing satirical religious cartoons is on equal footing with burning embassies, committing murder, threatening holocausts, etc.?

Indeed. These statements are so steeped in moral-equivalence miasma that they make a modern Unitarian Universalist congregation look like Geneva under the rule of John Calvin.

[Young Scholar]

The Vatican was never very into freedom of expression.

[Fruitbat]

Sounds like the Vatican is just dropping its pants and getting ready to bend over.

"We shouldn't diminish the love and respect Muslims have for their prophet Mohammed. This is very important for them and therefore cannot be the object of derision or ridicule," he said.

The archbishop added that violent reactions to such offenses are not justified.

This just in Cardinal, Allah's not real. Since your own Bible tells you that there is no other God but the Living, i.e. Biblical God, Allah must be a false god. But hey, far be it for a laymen to tell you what your religious underpinnings are, eh.

Cardinal Achille Silvestrini is either an idiot or insane.

[Right Cal Gal]

"freedom of expression does not include the right to offend religious sentiments"

Actually, your Holiness (or whomever), it includes exactly that.

[steve-b]

Actually, your Holiness (or whomever)

To be fair, there's no indication that the Pope himself has endorsed this lunacy. One hopes not.

[massgopguy]

The Russians couldn't find a home grown hitman that would shoot the Pope. So the had to get a Muslim from Bulgaria.

[sinkspur]

To be fair, there's no indication that the Pope himself has endorsed this lunacy. One hopes not.

I can't imagine that Benedict feels any differently than Archbishop Fitzgerald.

Publishing these cartoons was no different than displaying a jar of urine with a crufifix in it: it was meant to demean.

That one can publish something does not mean that one should.