Having been effectively 'out' all day yesterday, I did not realize that an adviser to French President Nicholas Sarkozy had directed hate speech against Benedict XVI for the general statements he made at the Angelus on Sunday, as follows:
The liturgical texts today remind us once more that all men are called to salvation. It is also an invitation to learn how to accept legitimate human differences, following the example of Jesus who came to gather together men of all nations and of all languages. Dear parents, may you educate your children in universal brotherhood!
Because he said it in French, the media reported the statement as a reference to the recent French law to expel Romanian-born gypsies from the country.
To which the Sarkozy adviser, Alain Minc, said yesterday:
One can say what one wants about the gypsy issue, but not a German Pope. John Paul II perhaps, but not him [Benedict XVI]. We saw his insensitivity when he reinstated a negationist bishop, his insensitivity to history - which, like all Germans, is inherited...
That anyone in the 21st century, let alone a Frenchman, can be so openly bigoted, striking not just at the Pope but all Germans as well, is unforgivable and unacceptable. As though any German has lost the right to express himself on anything concerning mistreatment of people because of the Nazi record.
Minc's comments bring a new low to the ad-hominem attacks against Benedict XVI by secular liberals who interpret every statement he makes, no matter how general and reasonable, not to mention right and irreproachable to any sensible person.
Once again, this called for an immediate protest from the Pope's Secretary of State, but will we hear from him, or from anyone at the Vatican at all? On the part of the French, at the very least, Sarkozy should be decent and civilized enough to denounce his adviser's bigotry and to apologize to the Pope for the offense.
All this, even as the Archbishop of Paris weighed in directly on the gypsy issue yesterday, while not referring to the Pope's Sunday statement. The following AP story, that does not carry the Minc comments (apparently made later yesterday), provides the background facts to the story, NB: The gypsies are referred to as 'Rom' in Italy, but it appears that the Anglophone press has now adopted the term 'Roma' to call them collectively.
Paris archbishop calls
gypsy crackdown 'a circus'
By ANGELA DOLAND
PARIS, August 26 (AP) — The Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, joined the tide of criticism over France's crackdown on Gypsies, calling it a "circus," while the EU's justice commissioner on Thursday denounced French officials' discriminatory tone about the vulnerable minority.
A poll says the French are split on the issue, and meanwhile the government puts more Roma on planes home to Eastern Europe. Citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, both EU member states, benefit from free circulation within the bloc, but the French labour market is not fully open to them and if they do not have a job and lodging after three months they are required to leave the country.
France brushed off the criticism and put nearly 300 Gypsies, or Roma, on two flights to their home country of Romania on Thursday. A poll showed the French are divided about the tactic, though slightly more favor it than oppose it.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government has linked the Roma minority to crime, from prostitution to child exploitation, and is dismantling their illegal squatters' camps and sending many back to Eastern Europe.
The policy has attracted widespread criticism from those who say it amounts to racism toward one of the European Union's most impoverished minorities, and that Sarkozy is playing to the far right before the 2012 presidential election to boost his poor approval ratings.
Amnesty International said it is concerned French comments linking Roma to crime may "lead to even further discrimination" against them. It added: "No one should be returned or expelled simply because they are Roma."
Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois told Europe-1 radio that he planned to meet with the interior minister to tell him what Roman Catholics think, "and to remind him that there are certain lines that must not be crossed."
On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI urged people to accept "legitimate human diversity" in remarks widely interpreted as a message about the Roma.
The cardinal — asked about a recent sermon that alluded to a circus — responded: "I spoke of a circus, which was the manner in which this affair was handled during the summer."
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who had until now avoided confrontation with Paris, said "some of the rhetoric that has been used ... has been openly discriminatory and partly inflammatory."
A day earlier, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux dismissed criticism as "political blather" and insisted racial prejudice was not behind the operation. He said 117 camps have been dismantled so far and hundreds sent home.
At Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, dozens of Roma, including children and babies, were escorted by police onto a flight to Romania. The country's Mediafax news agency said a total of 284 Roma arrived from France on Thursday.
France says most of the Roma who leave have done so voluntarily and are given euro300 per adult and euro100 per child to help resettle.
Human rights groups say the policy is absurd because many Roma simply return to France. Romania and Bulgaria are members of the European Union, and their citizens can enter France without a visa, but they must get work permits to work in France or residency permits to settle long-term.
One 36-year-old Roma woman who was recently turned out of an illegal camp in the Paris suburbs said she has already been expelled to Romania once before but immediately returned to France.
"I could not stay more than four days because I had no house," the woman, Rodica, told Associated Press Television News, declining to give her last name amid the crackdown. "I could not stay there. So I had to ask my family, which stayed in France, to send me some money and then I bought a bus ticket to come back."
A support group called Romeurope estimates that as many as 15,000 Roma live in France. French authorities have no official estimate.
A poll Tuesday and Wednesday of 1,000 people by the CSA agency for Le Parisien newspaper showed that 48 percent of those surveyed favored the expulsions, while 42 percent are opposed. No margin of error was given.
Meanwhile, French Minister for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche met with Romanian officials in charge of security and Gypsy issues.
Many Roma say they face less discrimination and better prospects in France than in Romania. Lellouche said he pressed Romania to make progress on "integrating minorities who are in great difficulty. We are experiencing the consequences in France."
I'm still looking for an Anglophone report about the Minc remarks.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/08/2010 22:27]