The Vatican says freedom of expression does not include the right to offend religious sentiments.
Commenting in its newspaper L’Osservatore Romano on the recent attack on a US anti-Islam cartoon competition, the newspaper calls the cartoons “blasphemous”. Whilst condemning the violent reactions to the cartoons, the article says that the exhibition in Garland, Texas was pouring “gasoline on the fire” of religious sensitivities.
“Intolerance — wherever it comes from, whether real or verbal, action or reaction — always constitutes a serious threat to peace,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement earlier this year.
Source: Religion News Service, L’Osservatore Romano
