Vatican official, Buttiglione condemn EU ‘inquisition’

“You can freely insult Catholics and nobody will tell you anything”

Strong statements coming from EU Commissioner Rocco Buttiglione regarding the new anti-Catholicism in Europe:

During a confirmation hearing last week, Mr Buttiglione said he regarded homosexuality a ‘sin’, and that marriage existed to allow women to have children and the protection of a male. On Friday Mr Buttiglione was reported as having said single mothers were not very good people. He later said he had been quoted out of context.

The political science professor, considered to be one of the closest friends and counsellors of Pope John Paul II, labelled this campaign an ‘inquisition’.

This word was echoed by Cardinal Martino, the head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, in his interview with Reuters on Monday.

‘It looks like a new inquisition,’ he said.

He said there was a ‘new anti-Catholicism’ in which ‘you can freely insult Catholics and nobody will tell you anything’.

Cardinal Martino, if you will recall, was the Vatican prelate so critical of the U.S. war to liberate Iraq, and also the prelate to reverse his criticism some months ago.