EU Attempted to Remove Christian Symbols of Commemorative Coin
The National Bank of Slovakia announced that the European Commission, the union’s executive arm, had ordered it to remove halos and crosses from special commemorative euro coins. The European Union finally gave in- the coins are to be minted as planned.
The coins were intended to celebrate the 1,150th anniversary of Christianity’s arrival in Slovak featuring two Byzantine monks, Cyril and Methodius. Their heads were crowned by halos and one’s robe decorated with crosses - too much Christianity for the EU and especially France. The New York Times reports: "The commission’s monetary and economic affairs department that ordered Slovakia to redesign its commemorative euro coins says it had no real problem itself with halos and crosses and demanded that they be deleted in the interest of “religious diversity” because of complaints from countries that also use the euro.Leading the charge was France, which enforces a rigid division of church and state at home, and objected to Christian symbols appearing on Slovak money that would also be legal tender in France." And further: “There is a movement in the European Union that wants total religious neutrality and can’t accept our Christian traditions,” said Archbishop Zvolensky, bemoaning what he sees as rising a tide of militant secularism at a time when Europe is struggling to forge a common identity. Slovakia’s national bank finally decided to stick to its original plan and mint the coins in the summer of 2013. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/world/europe/a-more-secular-europe-divided-by-the-cross.html