Pope warns EU could become dictatorship after attempts to ban Christmas with 'woke' rules on language

Pope Francis, 84, has spoken out against the EU becoming a dictatorship after it has created new ‘woke’ rules on language.

The pope warned the bloc "must be careful not to take the path of ideological colonisation. This could end up dividing countries and causing the EU to fail."

The pope urged that the EU could risk falling apart as he left Greece following a four-day trip, after last week Brussels withdrew a 32-page guide on inclusive language.

The guide advised staff to say “human-induced” instead of “man-made”. It also urged that staff avoid reference to Christmas during the holiday season.

Pope Francis, speaking on board the papal plane taking him back to Rome, responded to the ban on Christmas language by saying it was “a fad, watered-down secularism."

“In history, many dictatorships have tried to do these things. I’m thinking of Napoleon, the Nazi dictatorship, the Communist one", said the Pope.

Francis urged that Brussels “must respect...the variety of countries and not want to make them uniform. I don’t think it will do that...but be careful, because sometimes they come and throw projects like this one out there.”

The European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, said the guidebook “clearly needed more work”.