French President Jacques Chirac commented during Pope John Paul II's recent visit to
Lourdes, France that his Holiness was "a universal pastor and a man of peace" and said "France and the Holy See are joined in the fight for a world which places Man at the centre of every enterprise." [CNN Saturday, August 14, 2004 Posted: 1:57 PM EDT (1757 GMT)].
So let me get this straight: The Vatican no longer has a God-centric approach? Mind you, I know quite a few people who think Catholics are, to put it politely, off kilter. But to throw out God in favor of Man? I'm certainly hoping that Chirac misspoke, was wrongly soundbitten, or was badly translated. Maybe not, though, because France is working hard to have a very secular society (see these stories from CNN: One, Two, Three). This is the nation which gave us Jeanne d'Arc and penned it's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen "sous les auspices de l'être suprême" but it looks like it is denying God. Guess they found someone else to surrender to ... Satan.