CUNNING Catholics have connived to put a symbol of Jesus’ mum on the European Union emblem, according to a group of Protestants in the Netherlands.
The National Foundation for the Preservation of the Political Reformed Principles – phew! – insists that that the emblem – a circle of 12 golden stars on a blue background – symbolises the veneration by the Roman Catholic Church of the divinely-shagged Mary. And they damn well don’t want it appearing on their vehicle licence plates.
The EU emblem on a German licence plate
Chairman of the organisation is one P H op ‘t Hof – we kid you not – who told the Nederlands Dagblad:
Most people don’t think about it, but the EU symbol was thought up by a Roman Catholic in honour of Mary.
The newspaper reported that a court in the town of Leeuwarden had acknowledged that the issue involved a matter of conscience.
This emboldened the Protestant group to repeat earlier requests to Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings, asking that the EU symbol be removed from the plates.
But the minister, according to this report, was unimpressed, and effectively told the group to bugger off. He says that he sees no reason for scrapping the emblem. Op ‘t Hof was disappointed with the brush-off, but has come up with a cunning plan of his own.
His group is now selling adhesive stickers with the Dutch lion symbol to cover the EU emblem. Officially this is not allowed, but Op ‘t Hof says he has never encountered any problems.
The EU emblem and matching flag were first used by the Council of Europe, before being adopted by the EU in 1985. Some observers agree that the symbol bears a striking similarity to the 12-star halo of the Virgin Mary often seen in crappy Catholic art.
In 1989, the Vatican newspaper l’Osservatore Romano, reported that the emblem’s designer, Arsène Heitz, had described the source of his inspiration as a series of reported appearances by the gadabout Virgin Mary in 19th-century Paris. The date on which the Council of Europe adopted the flag, December 8, 1955, coincided with the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin.
But a Dutch member of the European Parliament, Toine Manders, has rejected as “outrageous” the statements by the group.
These 12 stars were already around in the period of Greek mythology – in other words long before Christianity.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
March 17th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Typical. They like to pretend they own and/or created everything under the sun when it’s usually a case of them having stolen it from others.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Mary worshippers!
March 18th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Divinely-shagged! I love it…but of course, if Jesus was God as catholics like to tell us, then didn’t he shag his own mother? [Nothing to do with this religious rubbish in the EU but it's fun to mention]…He’s not the Messiah! He’s a very naughty boy!
March 18th, 2009 at 4:56 am
You know what else it looks like? A circle. Just a circle.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
BAHAHAHAHAHA! *snort* HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Ah…
Silly, silly catholics.
March 18th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Ummm. Some of you who are attacking Catholic theology don’t even understand the basics. Your insults are basicly a clear demonstration of your ignorance. So that you all understand, Catholics believe that Jesus is God not because he is the same person as the Father. Rather, he is God because the he shares the one and only Divine nature with the Father. The Holy Spirit can be included in this as well. Thus we have three distinct persons who can properly be called God because they all share in the same divine nature.
This helps us to understand why Mary can be called the Mother of God while Jesus is not his own Father.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
One plus one plus one equals one. No wonder people who believe that belong to a cult that would havve Barnum beating a path to their doors.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars
Revelation 12:1
Whatever else it is, it’s biblical too.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
And there was me thinking religion was just astrological nonsense!
March 18th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Oh good grief, Christopher, of course there are people here who don’t understand the “basics” of Catholicism because no-one with any intelligence can possibly get their heads around incomprehensible crap – especially the “Holy” Trinity. Robert G Ingersoll had a go at untangling this piece of nonsense, and explained it thus:
Christ, according to the faith, is the second person in the Trinity, the Father being the first and the Holy Ghost the third. Each of these persons is God. Christ is his own father and his own son. The Holy Ghost is neither father nor son, but both. The son was begotten by the father, but existed before he was begotten – just the same before as after.
So, it is declared that the Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God, and that these three Gods make one God.
According to the celestial multiplication table, once one is three, and three times one is one, and according to heavenly subtraction, if we take two from three, three are left. The addition is equally peculiar, if we add two to one, we have but one …
How is it possible to prove the existence of the Trinity? Is it possible for a human being, who has been born but once, to comprehend, or to imagine the existence of three beings, each of whom is equal to the three?
Think of one of these beings as the father of one, and think of that one as half human and all God, and think of the third as having proceeded from the other two, and then think of the three as one.
Think that after the father begot the son, the father was still alone, and after the Holy Ghost proceeded from the father and the son, the father was still alone – because there never was and never will be but one God. At this point, absurdity having reached its limit, nothing more can be said except: ‘Let us pray.’
March 18th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I can’t get my head around that. I’m going for a lie down.
Or a beer.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
I love the book of Revelations it is hilariously funny. Just as hilarious is the fact that there are some out there who take it really seriously and can’t wait for the end of the world. They keep getting the date wrong though.
Christopher. You need to learn to know the difference between belief and knowledge. This is quite important because knowledge is hugely valuable while belief is utterly worthless.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Stonyground. I have read your above comment…but what if I sincerely ‘believe’ Christopher is talking out of his arse?
I have no proof. My belief is merely based on the fact that everyone who has put forward a similar opinion has been talking out of their arse!
What if I am wrong and those who talk out of their arseholes are right?
I’m gonna get another beer.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Christopher, poor thing you, suckered into the centuries-old human fabrication of xian utter tripe, let us hope your ‘holy’ silliness, oopss, trinity isn’t aware of the Hindu Trimurti, the Hindu silliness, oopss, trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva; can you imagine what would happened if those six, ooppss, one, no two, trinities all got together?
So let’s see, we have “GOD” who is immaterial therefore a ghost, getting together with another ghost, who all got together to make a man by shagging-divinely a human woman, even though pagan myths are full of divinely begotten men on human women, and hey presto! a nice little rival to the Hindu Trimurti; man, would I love to see them…hey! it’s the Flying Spaghetti Monster! that must explain all those waving arms!
March 19th, 2009 at 2:16 am
Callisto. Please mate, I still trying to get my nut around the previous posts without you adding curry gods and pasta into the mix.
Anyone fancy a takeaway? I’m starving.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Remigious. I think that must come somewhere in between as it has some supporting evidence but lacks veryfiable proof. Catholic theology on the other hand is just stuff that people made up. By the way, the old wine and wafer routine was stolen from pre-Christian religions as well.
March 20th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Good on u guys with your anti-christian rants
next thing you’ll all be claiming the yellow circle is actually a star of david in disguise
a zionist plot designed to subvert the protestant (religion bashing) new-world-disorder
March 20th, 2009 at 9:05 am
The coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. Have we just been accused of being conspiracy freaks?