Vatican newspaper: Charlie Hebdo

anniversary cover is blasphemous

By Monica Sarkar, CNN

Updated 1643 GMT (0043 HKT) January 6, 2016

Charlie Hebdo editor reflects on France's year of terror 00:56

Story highlights

Vatican newspaper: "Using God to justify hatred is an authentic

blasphemy, as Pope Francis repeatedly said"

Riss, Charlie Hebdo's head of publication: "Maybe we should learn to live

with a little less of God"
Watch CNN's exclusive interview with Laurent Sourisseau, Charlie Hebdo's
head of publication, on Amanpour on January 6 at 2pm ET (8pm CET)
(CNN)French magazine Charlie Hebdo's front covers are known to be
provocative. But now they've irritated the Vatican -- or at least its newspaper.
One day ahead of the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the publication's
headquarters in Paris that killed 12 people, Charlie Hebdo released 1 million
copies of a special edition.

The front cover features a bearded man, apparently representative of God,

splattered in blood and carrying an assault rifle over his shoulder. The headline
translates as: "One year after: The assassin is still out there."
In its commentary this week, L'Osservatore Romano, the newspaper of the
Vatican state, said it's not impressed.
"This episode isn't something new because, behind the deceitful flag of an
uncompromising secularism, the French magazine once again forgets what
religious leaders of different beliefs have been repeating for a long time to reject
violence in the name of religion.
"Using God to justify hatred is an authentic blasphemy, as Pope Francis
repeatedly said."
But in an exclusive interview on CNN's Amanpour, Laurent Sourisseau, Charlie
Hebdo's head of publication, who goes by the nickname of Riss, stands by the
illustration. "It is a caricature representing the symbolic figure of God," he
explains.
"To us, it's the very idea of God that may have killed our friends a year ago. So
we wanted to widen our vision of things. Faith is not always peaceful. Maybe we
should learn to live with a little less of God."
Following the attack last year, Charlie Hebdo released an edition with a sketch
of the Prophet Mohammed on the cover, looking solemn and holding up a sign
that read: "Je suis Charlie," or "I am Charlie" in French. The phrase was widely
shared on social media in support for the magazine.
Sourisseau clarifies who is depicted on the latest cover. "No, this is not
Mohammed. It's above him. It's the God of all those who have faith."