Friday, May 4, 2012

Report:Anti-Christian discrimination a serious problem right across Europe

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has acknowledged that anti-Christian discrimination has become a serious problem right across Europe, and has called for public debate about it.
The Organisation passed a resolution that “the right of Christians to participate fully in public life be ensured.”
It added that “in view of discrimination and intolerance against Christians, legislation in the member States, including labour law, equality law, laws on freedom of expression and assembly, and laws related to religious communities and right of conscientious objection [should] be assessed.”
The OSCE resolution was highlighted in the latest annual report of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDCE).
The Observatory, which monitors intolerance of Christianity in the countries of Europe, reported that discrimination against Christians right across the continent is becoming a significant problem.
But it expressed satisfaction that a number of politicians and international organisations such as the OSCE are starting to acknowledge the injustice.

In a sample of “most striking” cases last year, it noted how the Norwegian killer Anders Breivik was “instantaneously” but wrongly labelled a “Christian fundamentalist” by the world’s media.
“Anti-Christian prejudices needed a Christian equivalent to Muslim terrorism,” said Dr. Gudrun Kugler, one of the report’s authors.
As a result, a “thoughtlessly” and too-hastily attributed label “was gratefully received by the world’s media.”
The OIDCE report highlighted over 200 cases where Christians in Europe encountered either outright hate crimes or legal restrictions, including arrests and lawsuits, targeting their freedom of expression, belief and conscience.

Catholic adoption agencies in the UK, for example, have had to close down because they insisted that they could not in conscience give children for adoption to homosexual pairs.
Earlier this year a committee of Lords and MPs in the UK noted that the Equality Act passed by Labour under Tony Blair set up a “pecking order of competing equalities.” In every case the religious rights of Christians come last.

Speaking on Vatican Radio, Martin Kugler, the head of the Observatory, pointed to increasing limitations on the legal right of Christians to speak out on issues of concern.
“Medical staff in a hospital should be able to refuse collaboration in certain acts which they consider unethical, like abortion, euthanasia, sterilisations,” he said.
“This human right, which is called conscientious objection, is not really granted in some of the EU member states.”
As a result, some medical professions, are being “step by step closed up for Christians if they really take their faith seriously.” Also affected are midwives, doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
For Kugler, “raising awareness” is the first step in countering anti-Christian religious discrimination.
The OIDCE report was welcomed by Bishop AndrĂ¡s Veres of Hungary on behalf of the commission of the EU’s Catholic bishops.It confirmed, he said, “how some values and fundamental rights proper to Europe, such as freedom of religion and the legal recognition of our Churches, are far from being an established reality in some nations of the continent.” (Source:Alive.ie)

10 comments:

Gavin McHugh said...

If you were an Irish Catholic at the moment would you be anti Christian do you think?

It's always the same old story with the Catholic Church - shoot the messenger as in the Fr Brian Darcys and Fr McVerrys of this world rather than tackle the heinous crimes of the likes of Brendan Smyth!

And then you wonder why people in Ireland have stopped listening to the oligarchs in the PP's and Bishop's mansions not to mention the German Nazi installed in St Peter's!!

Face it, Catholicism in its present form is dead. People are turning away in their droves and with every right.

Regards,

Gavin, a lapsed Roman and Irish Catholic, but a good living person.

John Barry said...

The fact that some people within the Church may behave badly does not alter the the fundamental truths of Catholicism.
You take a cheap shot at Pope Benedict:
Read this from Wikipedia

"Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler Youth—as membership was required by law for all 14-year-old German boys after December 1939-but was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings, according to his brother. In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime and killed during the Action T4 campaign of Nazi eugenics. In 1943, while still in seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps as Luftwaffenhelfer (air force child soldier). Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but was released a few months later at the end of the war in the summer of 1945. He reentered the seminary, along with his."
There are 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. Have no fears. The Catholic church will survive and go from strength to strength. It is the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

John Barry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gavin McHugh said...

We can all copy and paste but all you are doing is running and hiding like Cardinal Brady's mob!!

I've been reading your blog now for a while and you are typical of the worst right wing self righteous southern USA Republican WASP! Typical of the sort of intransigence and ignorance that that stems from that area and that has spawned the hatred of centuries all over the world that has resulted in much of the conflict that we see today.

Wake up and smell the coffee!!

You and your ilk are an anachronism, a dying breed that nobody listens to!!

You carry on and continue to live in your idealistic ivory tower while the rest of us strive to live a real life!

John Barry said...

The personal nature of your comments is a sure indication that you are on weak ground.
Your response is typical of the worst form of pseudo liberal/secularist intolerance exhibited by many members of the US Democratic Party. It is characterised by hatred
of Catholicism and its teachings.
Liberalism is a by-word for intolerance.

Are you prepared to deny that the NAZIS murdered a cousin of Pope Benedict? You took a cheap shot at the Pope. And you were wrong. There is not a scintilla of evidence that Ratzinger had any NAZI sympathies.

There are 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. We are far from being a dying breed.

Incidentally you make the following comment:
“You and your ilk are an anachronism, a dying breed that nobody listens to!!”
No pearls of wisdom there I’m afraid. You make an absolute statement not supported by the facts.

Perhaps you should set up your own blog/website. Then we can judge the level of your intelligence.

rainywalker said...

This problem is in the US also but seems to be hidden in many cases in the background. There are some groups that are even burning small churches.

Gavin McHugh said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
John Barry said...

I posted an article titled "Report: Anti-Christian discrimination a serious problem right across Europe. You posted a series of anti Catholic comments and FAILED TO ADDRESS "Anti-Christian discrimination a serious problem right across Europe".
In other words you went off on a tangent and sought to divert attention from the substance of the article posted.
Your hatred of Catholicism is quite simply appalling. Now address the substance of the ABOVE ARTICLE or desist. Otherwise I will delete all your comments.
The article is titled " Anti-Christian discrimination a serious problem right across Europe" . Stop trying to divert from that by introducing red herrings.

John Barry said...

@rainywalker. I agree.

John Barry said...

I will not tolerate any libellous comments or comments which fail to address the subject matter of the article.