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Like the French EU commissioner, Jacques Barrot, whose mood combined anger and despair last night, Mr Barroso says he wants to stick to the rules: that all member states should continue with the process, then review the results. Together with Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, which holds the EU presidency, and the French President, Jacques Chirac, he insisted that ratification must continue in other countries despite the French vote."Nine member states, representing almost half [49 per cent] of the European population have already ratified the constitutional treaty," Mr Barroso said. Of course Mr Barroso did not put it like that when he gave his reaction last night. Never before has a founder member of the club, or such a large, important country, delivered such a devastating blow to the European project.Not only has France derailed carefully laid plans for reform, it has also revealed the depth of divisions about the EU's direction. Jose Manuel Barroso took over as European Commission president last November amid a political crisis His job has not got easier. Last night's vote in France is the start of a period of unprecedented uncertainty within the European Union. This included prohibiting priests and nuns from doing pastoral work with gay men and lesbians..
There is a reality of loving co-operation which asks to be granted the dimension of a citizen's right."As Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope declared homosexuality to be "a more or less strong tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil", and worked hard to suppress Catholic gay organisations. As well as his outspoken views on homosexuality and communism, the new leader of Puglia is the first such eminence to sport an earring. In a newspaper interview, he said: "Recognition of civil unions does not represent any threat to the institution of marriage and the family. We will welcome Benedict XVI with all the solemnity and joy that this important event merits".But on the eve of the Pope's visit, Mr Vendola had made clear his differences with the Pope's hard-line views on homosexuality. Governor Vendola said that the pontiff's visit to the capital of his province was "a cause of joy for me and for all the people of Puglia.
All car traffic in the city was banned for the duration of the visit, hundreds of police patrolled the streets and a ship of the Italian navy was anchored offshore. The retinue of senior members of the Italian government in attendance included the speakers of both houses of parliament, and Giuseppe Pisanu, Minister of the Interior.The Pope was welcomed to the city by Mr Vendola, Bari's most controversial new contribution to the Italian political landscape. The Pope termed it "a land of encounter and dialogue with our Christian brothers to the east".Under a broiling sun, Pope Benedict also took an outing through the cheering crowds in a boxy, bullet-proof Popemobile of the type made famous by his predecessor.The three-hour excursion was conducted under heavy security The Pope flew to Bari by helicopter. Pope Benedict XVI has made his first trip outside Rome since his election six weeks ago, flying by helicopter to the south-eastern port city of Bari for the culmination of a Catholic conference where he called for Christian unity. The Bavarian pontiff who, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was known as Pope John Paul II's "enforcer of the faith", took the opportunity of the trip to the province of Puglia to underline the commitment to bringing all followers of Christ together which has been a dominant theme of his papacy since his election last month. Their protest may have been less dramatic than the revolution of 1789, but the feeling was that they had played a part in a momentous day all the same.
