Pope Francis has compared the EU to a ‘Nazi dictatorship’ for trying to impose woke rules on language and ban using the word Christmas.
The pope, 84, warned the bloc not to ‘take the path of ideological colonisation’ as he returned from Greece after a four-day trip.
Last week, the EU was accused of trying to ‘cancel Christmas’ after telling staff to avoid the word in favour of ‘holiday period’ because it could be offensive to non-Christians.
Eurocrats published the rule months ago as part of a guide on ‘inclusive communication’, details of which leaked leading to a furious backlash.
Other suggestions in the book included replacing Christian names such as Mary and John with ‘international’ names such as Malika and Julio when using them in generic examples, and swapping the word ‘man-made’ for ‘human-induced’.
The pontiff said the language diktats, which the European Commissioner for Equality admitted ‘clearly needed more work’, ‘a fad, watered-down secularism’.
He said while on board the papal plane on return to the Vatican: ‘It is something that throughout history has not worked.
‘In history, many dictatorships have tried to do these things. I’m thinking of Napoleon, the Nazi dictatorship, the Communist one.’ (DailyMail)