Hungary Asks ‘Is Everyone Entitled to Religious Freedom Except for Christians?’

Hungary has offered to take a Christian cross which the French authorities say must be removed from a statue of Pope John Paul II in Brittany.

The courts had originally ruled that the entire statue, donated to the small town of Ploërmel by a Russian artist, must be torn down, but now say it may remain provided the cross is decapitated, prompting the mayor who received it to complain of “an attack on a part of our culture”.

The ruling has also caused considerable upset in the late pontiff’s native Poland, where he is revered as a symbol of Poland’s struggle to free itself from the Communist yoke by many, including the current government.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told reporters that Budapest had contacted the town offering to arrange for the cross to be saved and transported to his country, where it would be received by the Saint Benedict Secondary and High School.

“Such measures must be regarded as attempts to do away with the continent’s civilisation and culture”, the minister warned, describing attempts to remove Christian symbols from public life in the name of tolerance as “astounding self-deprecation” and “hugely damaging”.

He added that large-scale illegal immigration was endangering Europe’s Christian nature and that newcomers less keen to abandon their cultural identity would overwrite local customs.

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