“ The star of the show was Pope Benedict”: that was the headline chosen by The Catholic Herald (29/04) over a comment by Father Sean Finnegan on the first liturgies, beginning with that of enthronement, that have marked the start of Benedict XVI’s pontificate. “ Many of those who were worried by the somewhat uncharitable things that had been said about him must feel reassured to see his benevolent features and his warm smile in spite of some natural timidity”. In another comment in the same paper, with the title “ The first meeting, brief but significant, of Pope Benedict with the world press”, Peter Jennings points out that “ really, it is very irritating to hear Pope Benedict XVI described as an ultra-conservative. He is not. He will simply follow the doctrine of the Catholic Church“. The Italian daily Avvenire (05/05) dedicates its editorial to the first anniversary of the 25-member Europe, with the title “ Going forward, despite Chirac“. Luigi Geninazzi writes: “ The referendum on the Constitutional Treaty, to which the French will be called on 29 May, followed on 1st June by the Dutch, will be a crucial test for the European Union as a whole … the veto of Paris and Brussels to the requests of Warsaw and the new members was too arrogant. The firm rejection of any recognition of the Christian roots of the continent is wholly incomprehensible and flies in the face of our history“. “ Beyond the voices of doom of the euro-sceptics and the rhetoric of the euro-enthusiasts, perhaps the time has come for euro-realism … Europe is going forward, with the ‘by your leave’ of Chirac and ‘his’ European Treaty“. “ The honour of a profession” is the title of an editorial in La Croix (03/05), dedicated to the question of press freedom, jeopardized in recent years by numerous episodes of the murder, kidnapping or acts of intimidation against journalists in various parts of the world. “ Like all civil liberties writes Dominique Quinio -, press freedom becomes all the more desirable the more it is under threat … like all liberties, it must be protected“. The author goes on to list the most prominent cases of the attack on this freedom in or time: “ Press freedom remains an abstract idea until it is actually embodied in persons, destinies and faces. We think, of course, of the case of Florence Aubenas, who has been a hostage now for over 118 days, for having gone among the Iraqis to report on their life in the midst of all the violence … Or that of the three Romanian journalists who have also been kidnapped in Iraq. Or that of Fred Nèrac, who has vanished in the same country … or the 53 journalists who died in the exercise of their profession in 2004 and the 107 being held in jail at 1st January 2005, according to the reports of Reporters sans Frontières”. Quinio concludes by citing the case of nine journalists in exile in Paris who, on 3 May, “ came to reinforce the editorial team of La Croix”. “ With their presence and their talent, they will remind us of the need and the honour of this profession” says Quinio. Germany and its commentators analyse the general elections in Great Britain. “ A sword of Damocles hangs over Tony Blair on the eve of the elections to the House of Commons“, writes Thomas Kielinger in Die Welt (4/5). “ One could also call it the sword of ‘Saddamocles’, since it has something to do with the Iraqi dictator and with the war that led to his fall, but that has also dragged Iraq into an infinite series of bloody sufferings. The seed of democracy is threatened by an uncontrollable group of international terrorists. And the future of Tony Blair is also at risk. The instigators of mass murder have failed in their intention to create a ‘Madrid’ case in England prior to the elections: the eyes and ears of the anti-terrorist branch of Scotland Yard are everywhere. But even an electorate as sober as that of the British does not remain indifferent to things of this kind“. “ There is an issue that has never been tackled in the British electoral campaign over the last four weeks. None of the three major parties has dared to speak about Europe“, says a comment in the Frankfurter Rundschau. “ The fact that precisely this issue, one of the most controversial for British politics, has been completely ignored… must seem strange beyond the coasts of the British Isles. Meanwhile, in France, just over the Channel, a real storm is brewing up, whose potential consequences for the EU are barely imaginable“. And the weekly Der Spiegel (2/5) comments: “ According to the polls, Tony Blair and his party can count on a third consecutive victory. But the interest of the public in an electoral campaign devoid of contents is low“. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1386 N.ro relativo : 35 Data pubblicazione : 06/05/05
