Speaking at Monday’s hearing of the Saeima Investigative Committee on the Zolitūde Disaster, the cardinal pointed to “vanishing morals” as the deeper underlying reason for the roof collapse in which 54 people lost their lives.
But he also took the opportunity to blast the decadence of the European Union for encouraging an atmosphere of amorality.
“This may be a harsh thing to say, but even Hitler’s and Stalin’s regimes didn’t dare raise pederasty to the level of state policy," Pujats said.
"Unfortunately this nastiness has become a reality in the EU. Our Satversme (Latvia’s Constitution) provides only for a normal family. The EU has launched an internal crusade against the Christian faith,” he suggested.
As noted by newswire BNS, the senior Catholic had a lot to tell the parliamentary probe, urging all to help the victims of the disaster by praying for them.
“There aren’t just technical causes for the misfortune,” the Cardinal argued.
“The deeper reasons for this tragedy should be sought in the people’s moral realm. Who is their God? Money, or something else entirely?,” he asked.
“The world, we see, is losing its ideal of striving toward God. If young people ask – what good is faith? - they need to be told that faith guarantees at least a normal and even a happy life,” the Cardinal told the deputies.
Committee chair Ringolds Balodis (For Latvia From the Heart), had to interrupt and remind the elderly clergyman of the parliamentary commission’s mandate from which he had digressed, whereupon MP Artuss Kaimiņš, arriving late to the hearing, asked “Do gays go to hell?”
The Cardinal responded: “I think you know the answer.”
Last October Latvia's Catholic Archbishop Zbigņevs Stankevičs made news by bashing same-sex partnership laws passed in Estonia and previously declaring that gays "are destroying human identity."
The Zolitūde tragedy occurred on the evening of November 21, 2013, when a series of roof collapses at the Maxima supermarket shopping center in the Riga neighborhood killed 54 persons and injured dozens, including fire and rescue service workers.
In April the prosecution announced the launching of criminal cases against eight persons declared as suspects after the full police investigations into the construction catastrophe were finally completed.
