This may seem like an out of character comment from a (lapsed) Baptist like myself, but I think the old boy has recently played a blinder! 

Basically he’s stood up to a recent internal European Commission document called the “European Commission Guidelines for Inclusive Communication,” which, amongst other things, advised officials to use inclusive language when referring to Christmas events, and to use non-specific gender terms wherever possible.  Apparently, it’s the brainchild of the Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, who it seems is quite proud of it, but accepts it needs some ‘more work’.

Thus EU documents should henceforth refer to, for example, the “holiday season” rather than “Christmas”, and “fore-name”, rather then, “Christian-name”, so as to avoid offending non-Christians.  They’re also to avoid terms such as “man-made”, in favour of “human derived”, not use “Ladies and Gentlemen”, and to use ‘Chair’ in place of “Chairman”. 

So in many ways it really a re-hash of the politically correct nonsense we all made jokes about years ago.  E.G. ‘Person-hole’ covers’.

This is from a ‘Catholic News Agency’, publication:

“Pope Francis said on Monday that a withdrawn document discouraging European Commission staff from using the word “Christmas” was an “anachronism.”
“He noted that a series of ideologies had attempted to pull up Europe’s Christian roots.  “You refer to the European Union document on Christmas… this is an anachronism,” he said.  “In history many, many dictatorships have tried to do it. Think of Napoleon: from there. Think of the Nazi dictatorship, the communist one… it is a fashion of a watered-down secularism, distilled water.  But this is something that throughout hasn’t worked.”
Speaking to journalists on Monday, the pope stressed that the EU should uphold the ideals of its founding fathers, who included committed Catholics such as Robert Schuman and Alcide De Gasperi, who the pope quoted during a major speech on democracy in Athens on Dec. 4.
“The European Union must take in hand the ideals of the founding fathers, which were ideals of unity, of greatness, and be careful not to take the path of ideological colonization,” the pope told reporters at the end of his five-day visit to Cyprus and Greece.
“This could end up dividing the countries and [causing] the European Union to fail. The European Union must respect each country as it is structured within, the variety of countries, and not want to make them uniform.”

So do you think it’s possible for use to drop terms such as, “Seasons Greetings”, and “Festive Season”.  They’re usually employed by officials who claim they’re trying to avoid offending non-Christians, but I suspect the real motives is an atheistic (and in some cases Marxist) desire to eliminate all religions.