The European Commission has admitted its error in producing a diary which contained the important feast days of most major religions, except Christianity.
 
The publication of the diary caused a significant controversy, with Christian organisations and a number of politicians expressing anger and astonishment.
 
France’s Minister of European Affairs Laurent Wauquiez attacked the original version of the diary. At a press briefing on the subject, he asked: “Are we ashamed of our Christian identity? Are we ashamed that the Europe of church towers was the base of our European identity?
 
However, in a statement, the Commission has now said that the publication of the diary excluding Christian holidays was a “regrettable omission”. It has sent out corrections to all teachers who have ordered the edition.
 
“There was never an intention to discriminate against the Christian religion in this publication,” the European Commission’s Consumer Affairs department stated.
 
In its initial response to the controversy, a spokesperson for the Commission said that a possible solution to the error was to remove all religious holidays.
 
Christians were angered because the diary section for December 25 is blank and the bottom of the page with Christmas Day is marked only with the secular message: “A true friend is someone who shares your concerns and will double your joy”.
 
Catholic lobby groups and Christian Democrat MEPs had already complained to the commission about its Christmas card for this year which bears the words “Season’s Greetings” with no reference to Christianity.
 
The Christian Democratic Party in France called the omissions “unacceptable.” It filed a petition asking that the calendars not be distributed as printed but replaced with versions that include Christian holidays.
 
Johanna Touzel, the spokesman for the Catholic Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, said the absence of Christian festivals was “just astonishing”.
 
“Christmas and Easter are important feasts for hundreds of millions of Christians and Europeans. It is a strange omission. I hope it was not intentional,” she said
 
“If the commission does not mark Christmas as a feast in its diaries then it should be working as normal on December 25.”
 
The European Commission and the EU Economic and Social Committee funded the distribution of 3,275,500 copies of the 2010/2011 Europa Diary, a school calendar for secondary school students to help them in homework. Its weekly pages include footnotes to teach students facts they might not know, including holidays of other religions.
 
The publisher said the omission of Christian holidays occurred in the footnotes. The calendar did include both Muslim and Jewish holidays.
 
The 2011/2012 edition of the calendar will include the main public and religious holidays celebrated in each of the EU countries.