Those crazy Frenchmen, still at it...

Paying state respects to a dead man and endorsing his religion are two very different things. The French Greens, Socialists, and Teachers Union don't seem to see the distinction. To wit:

It upsets me," said Christophe Girard, a Green party councillor in Paris. "On the front of our town halls and schools, the words that are written are 'liberty, equality, fraternity'. They do not say 'The Catholic Republic of France', like the Islamic Republic of Iraq." [...] Another Green councillor, Yves Contassot, said the decision was "utterly out of place" and accused President Jacques Chirac of "abusing his position" by attending a Mass in the Pope's honour at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sunday.

Moral equivalence gone mad. Quite a surprise coming from that bunch, oi? At least the official government sources are speaking sense.