Denver\'s Chaput flogs Europe, saying it is forsaking Christianit
Courtesy: Rocky Mountain News
Archbishop Charles Chaput talks of growing intolerance.
Denver's Chaput flogs Europe, saying it is forsaking Christianity
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News
June 10, 2005
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput waved a red flag before an
-international
audience Thursday in Spain, accusing Europe of growing religious
intolerance
and abusing Christianity.
"Europe has given the whole world the seeds of democracy," he told
government ministers from 55 nations, according to a text of his
speech.
"Today's growing anti-religious and often anti-Christian spirit
undermines
that witness."
Chaput was among nine members of a State Department delegation led by
New
York Gov. George Pataki. The two-day conference, "Anti-Semitism and
Other
Forms of Intolerance," in Cordoba, Spain, was sponsored by the
Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In his address, Chaput traced Europe's Christian roots and decried
abandonment of that heritage by the continent's prevailing culture.
Secularism has been a growing influence in Europe. The European Union's
constitution makes no mention of the continent's Christian heritage.
There
also is momentum to extend euthanasia laws and marriage rights to gay
couples.
Chaput cited legal restrictions of religious expression and open
contempt of
religious symbols.
"Programs like How To Cook a Crucifix (a show aired on Spanish TV last
December), and sacramental confessions recorded without the confessor's
knowledge are deeply contemptuous of Catholic believers," Chaput said.
"This is unworthy of Europe's moral dignity and religious heritage.
Furthermore, it stands in stark contrast to OSCE commitments to promote
religious freedom."
Chaput said "an equally dangerous trend" was state-encouraged ridicule
and
intolerance of public expressions of faith, often derided as
fundamentalism.