Paris: Cardinal Vingt-Trois addresses Catholic community

Cardinal Vingt-Trois

The Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, has issued a message to the Catholic community of the city, in the wake of deadly terror attacks on the satirical journal, Charlie Hebdo, earlier in the week.

In a letter dated Saturday,10 January in the online pages of the Catholic daily La Croix, Cardinal Vingt-Trois says that the incident is, “a call to rediscover the fundamental values of the republic,” including freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. “A cartoon, however distasteful, cannot be put on the same level as murder,” he writes. “Freedom of the press, whatever the cost,” continues the letter, “is the sign of a mature society.”

Cardinal Vingt-Trois is among a growing chorus of religious and civil leaders, who have condemned the attacks and recalled that, unless freedom of speech protects even that speech, which is offensive and outrageous, then it is meaningless – among them US President Barack Obama, who offered expressions of solidarity with France.

The leaders of Germany, Britain, France and Italy announced plans to participate in a vigil in Paris today to celebrate French unity in the wake of the violence. Tensions have been mounting in France lately, as an estimated 1,200 French citizens are believed to have joined Islamic forces fighting in Syria and in Iraq, while France has sent troops to Africa and joined the United States in air combat missions targeting IS in Iraq.

Meanwhile, throughout France, laws banning the display of any religious faith have been more strictly enforced recently. Before Christmas, Nantes council banned a Nativity crib from the town centre, in accordance with a 1905 law on the separation of Church and State. Muslim women are not allowed to wear the hijab in public places.

Source: La Croix/Vatican Radio