“ The Vatican goes on the offensive against the ‘Da Vinci Code’” is the headline carried on the front page of the International Herald Tribune (17/3), emphasising the Holy See’s advice “ to Christians not to buy and still less read the thriller that has become a bestseller“. The journalist Elisabeth Rosenthal reports an interview with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa. “ I am really amazed that a book containing so many errors and so many lies can have such a success said Bertone, adding -: I wonder what would happen if a similar book full of lies about Buddha of Mahomet were to be written or even if manipulations of the history of the Holocaust or the Shoah were to appear in a novel?” The Herald Tribune also reports the opinion expressed by the author himself: he has declared that “ this book is anti-nothing. It’s just a story”. The paper concludes by saying that the criticisms depend on the fact that the book “ has sold 25 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 44 languages, causing no end of headaches for the Catholic Church. Moreover, next year it is due to be turned into a film, with Tom Hanks in the lead role“. To remain in the field of doctrinal errors and deviations, the French daily La Croix (14/3) dedicates ample coverage to the “new religions”. In a two page feature under the general title “ The campaign against the sects becomes more discreet“, the author Marianne Gomez points out that “ by breaking away from the previous policy of ‘let’s go to war’ [against the sects], the government is no longer focusing just on the sects, but on ‘sectarian deviations’, i.e. reprehensible forms of conduct“. “ In the heart of the Church adds Martine De Sauto in another article on the question concerns are being expressed about spiritual needs and the ‘bricolage’ of beliefs“, in other words “ the Catholic Church is taking seriously the question of the new religious feeling of our time”. One of the interlocutors interviewed by the paper points out: “ Today we must respond to the challenge of the new spirituality, and analyse in depth the reasons that prompt people to seek responses in that direction“. Crisis and reforms: these are the problems on which the attention of German public opinion is focused. The Schröder government has called a summit on employment, in which the opposition will also participate. And the President of the Federal Republic Horst Köhler has also pronounced on the matter, in a speech greeted with strong reservations by the opposition. On the question whether Köhler has or has not the right to pronounce on the reforms, Knut Pries in the Frankfurter Rundschau (16/3) says: “ He must do so. It makes no sense to elect a President and then deny him the chance of pronouncing on problems that have now become of fundamental importance for the nation“. On the problem of reforms, Karl Graf Hohenthal writes as follows in Die Welt (15/3): “ For decades, the State has augmented its burden, introducing new taxes, and redistributing the revenue to achieve a kind of equality and social justice that no one is able to define in a precise way. But what Germany needs is just the opposite: less State and less taxes, less claims by citizens but at the same time more scope for their freedom. The elimination of structures requires courage and its realization is difficult. Only politicians with capacity for leadership can do so“. And a comment in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (16/3) says: “ Köhler’s speech was a lament on the decadence of the policy of order and particularly of its most important ideal, freedom. It is the fault of all those who have participated in the definition of the political, economic and social order of Germany since the end of the war”. The announced pullout of Italian troops from Iraq beginning this September bulks large on the front pages of the Spanish dailies on 16/3. But the announcement was later ‘corrected’ by the Italian premier himself, who speaks instead of a “hope”. “Berlusconi announces the partial withdrawal of Italy from Iraq with the consent of the USA” is the headline in Abc. Another Spanish daily El Mundo also opens with the same story, emphasizing that “public opinion hopes in this decision”. “Italy to quit Iraq” is the headline in El Periodico. In its edition of 14/3 and 15/3 El Paìs analyses at length the reasons for the pullout of Spanish troops from Iraq, and attempts to reconstruct what the main motivations might have been. “The last months of their deployment in Iraq says the paper ended up by becoming a nightmare for the Spanish troops”,… not only obliging the initial objectives of the mission to be drastically changed, but also revealing sharp discrepancies with the methods of the coalition. The retreat took place amid the worst suspicions and fears”. “For the soldiers themselves concludes the author of the article, Antonio Caño Iraq was one of their best missions. The Spanish battalions preserve hundreds of memories brought home by the troops from that country. They confess to having learned a lot about what it means to operate within a hostile environment, and they don’t just allude to the meteorological conditions”.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1372 N.ro relativo : 21 Data pubblicazione : 18/03/05
