FRENCH SATIRICAL MAGAZINE Charlie Hebdo has been hit with criticism from the Vatican for showing a man seeming to represent God carrying an assault rifle.

The picture was published earlier this month to mark the anniversary of the attack on the publication’s headquarters in Paris that killed 12 people.

Charlie Hebdo Charlie Hebdo

Accompanying the picture is the caption:

One year after: The assassin is still out there.

Writing about this, the Vatican state newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said that: “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.”

Charlie Hebdo’s move shows the sad paradox of a world which is increasingly sensitive about being politically correct to the point of being ridiculous… but does not want to recognise or respect believers’ faith in God, regardless of religion.

The article in the Vatican's newspaper The Holy See The Holy See

Speaking to CNN, Charlie Hebdo’s head of publication Laurent Sourisseau said that the picture represents “the symbolic figure of God” and that:

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.

Read: Charlie Hebdo anniversary cover features God with a gun

Also: A man has been shot after attempting to ram a soldier guarding a mosque in France