Rome, Italy, Jan 21, 2009 / 08:31 am
In an interview with the L’Osservatore Romano, Italian politician Mario Mauro said he sees the prevention of discrimination against Christians as an important aspect of his new role in the European Union.
In the interview, Mauro, who is vice president of the European Parliament, said that in assuming his new role at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), religion will play a part. “Although no political problem can be resolved with religion, it is also true that no political problem can be resolved going against religion,” he said.
Mauro went on to state that the situation for Christians is most complicated in “Caucasian areas and in the countries of the East.”
“In the countries of the former Communist block the problem is centered upon when and how to return the goods and property that belong to the religious communities of these countries, in the nations of the European Union, we find the problem is discrimination, probably more subtle—but often more consistent—which has to do with the right of considering the expression of faith as a factor in public life, and not simply as a private act.”