Munich, Germany, Sep 19, 2007 / 10:35 am
The Archdiocese of Munich has asked the mayor of that city, Christian Ude, to revoke the permission granted for the celebration of the MTV Europe Music Awards, which will take place on November 1, the solemnity of All Saints.
Mayor Ude said “the event should go on” and he refused to revoke MTV’s permission to hold the awards. “This is an event that only happens once, it cannot be rescheduled and it will only take place at the Olympic Hall. Nobody is going to be prevented from going to church or to the cemetery,” he said.
Winfried Röhmel, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Munich, told the DDP news agency that All Saints’ Day “is not vacation time for people to go to parties.”
“If somebody like Mr.(Justin) Timberlake is only available on All Saints’ Day, then we should throw our culture of religious holidays in the trash,” he told the newspaper Abendzeitung. The decision by the city to approve the event is “deplorable and disrespectful,” he added.