Brittany, France: A statue that was erected to honour the late Pope John Paul II has become the centre of a diplomatic crisis .
France’s top administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat ruled in favour of the removal of a cross that is on a statue of John Paul in prayer citing that it is against the country’s laws that support secularism. The order that was issued by the court has led to a diplomatic argument between France and Poland, which is the motherland of the late pontiff.
Officials of the Poland government opposed the move .Poland’s prime minister Beata Szydło, has now stepped into a row and offered to have the statue moved to Poland, to rescue it from “the dictates of political correctness”. She said that religious censorship is undermining the values of Europe.
“Our great Pole, a great European, is a symbol of a Christian, united Europe,” she said, adding that secularisation and the dictatorship of political correctness are “alien to our culture, which leads to terrorising Europeans in their everyday life”.
The argument has been raging ever since the statue by Russian artist Zourab Tsereteli was erected in 2006, with strong feelings voiced on both sides. The secularist National Federation of Free Thought campaigned to have it removed, and the court has now agreed that the cross must go, stating that its “presence in a public location is contrary to the law”.
But while the Church has called the court’s decision “balanced”, Conservative and Far Right politicians have reacted with vehemence. Valérie Boyer, an MP for the right-wing Republicans party formerly led by Nicolas Sarkozy, asked: “When will this madness consisting of trying to erase our roots end?” Louis Aliot, vice president of the Front National, said the “iniquitous” decision could precipitate “the destruction of our Judeo-Christian society”.
The mayor of Ploërmel, Patrick Le Diffon, was opposed to removing the large cross from the arch over the statue, which he called a work of art. But rather than “rekindle a war of religion” he came up with a solution to sidestep the problem by selling the public land to a private investor.