Irish people of faith call for government commitment to religious freedom

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DUBLIN (7 May 2021) – People of faith are signing an open letter, addressed to the Irish Prime Minister, Micheál Martin TD, demanding a commitment never to ban church worship in Ireland again.

Church doors will open once again on Monday, after public worship was forbidden for almost a full year, with criminal penalties imposed on those who left their homes to attend services and masses. Despite commercial public venues such as dry cleaners and off-licenses being allowed to open with safety measures in place, worship in church was strictly prohibited.

The open letter, backed by human rights group ADF International, is available to read and sign at www.letusworship.global/ireland.

“There is no clear reason as to why the Irish government prevented places of worship from opening for so long. Other European countries allowed religious worship to continue with safety precautions which protect both the public at religious services and the wider community,” said Lorcán Price, Irish barrister and Legal Counsel for ADF International.

The letter, launched this week, makes three concrete asks of the leader of the Irish government.

First, the letter asks that the Taoiseach affirm respect for the fundamental right to freedom of religion, which is enshrined in Article 44 of the Constitution and protected in international human rights law.

Second, it demands that he recognize that churches are an essential part of society, and finally, that he commits that his government will never again impose a blanket ban on public worship.

“In Scotland, we saw the same disproportionate measures struck down by the top civil court as “unlawful”. Religious freedom is a fundamental human right, protected by the Irish Constitution, and it’s vital that the Irish government recognise this. Irish people of faith were deprived of worship, of the sacraments, and of the hope that the church can offer at a time when they were most needed – at a time of crisis. The Irish government must show that it understands that communal worship is essential for many Irish people, and commit to never again imposing such a draconian ban,” continued Price.

Legal challenge to blanket worship ban pending before courts

Declan Ganley, who filed a legal challenge after seeing the impact on all faith communities, is redoubling his efforts to ensure that the blanket ban on worship will never be imposed again and to hold the government to account.

The businessman’s claim for a judicial review into the disproportionate ban mirrors that of Canon Tom White in Scotland. In March, the Glasgow priest joined with 27 other faith leaders to successfully have the Scottish government’s blanket ban on worship ruled unlawful and struck down.

Ganley is hopeful for a similar decision from the Irish court.

“I welcome the steps that the government is taking to reopen churches. However, this does not reverse the fact that for most of the past year, churches have been subjected to unfair treatment in comparison to places of commerce,” said Ganley, in response to the news that the government would allow services to resume this weekend.

“There is no clear explanation as to why the Irish people should have been deprived of an essential source of comfort and hope in such a time of national grief. There’s no clear logic as to why an airy, open church, with plenty of space, should be considered somehow more dangerous than a bicycle shop. Are people of faith really more contagious than others?” he continued.

“We know from the case of Canon Tom White in Scotland that the decision to completely ban public worship is an unlawful one. While I am very thankful that church doors will once again open in Ireland, this case remains important. Now more than ever, we need a clear decision from the court as to whether this draconian ban was ever justified in the first place. And it is also a critical moment for the future of faith in Ireland. The courts now have the opportunity to ensure that the community is never again deprived access to a place to meet with God and minister to the suffering at a time of need.”

Source: adfinternational.org

As evidence of genocide mounts, now is the time to pray for China

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by Benedict Rogers

China today faces the worst human rights crisis since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, and the most severe crackdown on religious freedom since the Cultural Revolution. While the Chinese Communist Party regime has always been repressive, today it stands accused of genocide, forced organ harvesting, repeated breaches of international treaties, an all-out assault on all forms of dissent, civil society activism or independent media and a war on faith.

Last month, the British House of Commons voted unanimously to recognise the atrocities perpetrated against the predominantly Muslim Uyghur people as a genocide. This follows similar motions by the Canadian and Dutch parliaments, an official decision by both the previous and current United States administrations, and a growing body of opinion from legal experts and scholars. 

At the same time Hong Kong’s promised freedoms, rule of law and autonomy have been rapidly dismantled, in flagrant violation of the Sino-British joint declaration and the city’s own mini-constitution, known as the “basic law”. Hong Kong’s jails are now filling up with political prisoners. Most recently, some of Hong Kong’s most prominent, most senior, most mainstream and most internationally respected pro-democracy campaigners, including Catholics such as media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, student leader Agnes Chow and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, have been jailed. Others – such as the “father of the democracy movement”, devout Catholic Martin Lee and fellow barrister Margaret Ng – received suspended sentences. For what? For having participated in a peaceful protest in 2019.

Meanwhile repression in Tibet intensifies, practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement continue to be targeted and Christians in mainland China – Catholic and Protestant – face intensifying persecution. Thousands of crosses have been destroyed in recent years, while churches have been closed or in some cases destroyed. In state-controlled churches, images of China’s ruler Xi Jinping and Chinese Communist Party propaganda banners are displayed alongside – or sometimes instead of – religious images. Surveillance cameras are erected at the altar, and young people under the age of 18 are banned from all churches, receiving the sacraments, and attending Bible studies. With these severe restrictions, perpetuating the faith and attracting new religious vocations among the next generation will prove difficult.

The Bible and other Christian texts are being censored from the Chinese Internet. Unauthorised possession of bibles results in bible burnings. The regime is currently retranslating and reinterpreting the Bible and is expected to do so in ways that serve the  goals of the Communist Party, such as occurred in the retelling of John’s Gospel in a 2020 state-sponsored textbook, which depicted the adulterous woman being stoned to death by Jesus.

New rules on the selection of Catholic bishops in China make no provision for any papal role in the process, in complete disregard for the recently renewed Sino-Vatican agreement of 2018. Bishops, who are essential to the life of the Catholic Church, are needed to fill dozens of vacant diocesan posts throughout China.

Catholic and Protestant clergy who refuse to join the state-approved churches face the risk of arrest and imprisonment. The Catholic bishop of Baoding diocese in Hebei province, Bishop James Su Zhimin, has become one of the world’s longest-serving prisoners of conscience. While leading a religious procession in 1996, Bishop Su was taken into police custody and has not been heard of since. He had already been imprisoned for 26 years and severely tortured under Mao Zedong’s rule. The 70-year old Catholic bishop Augustine Cui Tai, of  Xuanhua Diocese, Hebei province, has been in detention without due process for most of the last 13 years. Bishop Cui Tai was mostly recently taken into detention on 19 June 2020. 

Among Protestants, Pastor Wang Yi, one of China’s most prominent Christian voices and founder of the underground Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, was sentenced in December 2019 to a nine-year prison term. 

It is for all these reasons that Asia’s most senior cleric, Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Bo, has called for a “Week of Prayer for the Church and Peoples of China” from 23-30 May this year. In his capacity as President of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, Cardinal Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, issued a statement on 14 March urging the faithful to extend the annual Worldwide Day of Prayer for the Church in China, designated in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI as 24 May – the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians – to a week of prayer.

Cardinal Bo emphasised the need to pray both for the Church specifically, and for all the peoples of China, saying: “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the peoples of China have faced increasing challenges, which impact us all. It is right that we should pray not only for the Church but for all persons in the People’s Republic of China. We should ask Our Lady of Sheshan to protect all humanity and therefore the dignity of each and every person in China.”

He added: “In proposing this Week of Prayer I am expressing my love for the peoples of China, my respect for their ancient civilisation and extraordinary economic growth, and my hopes that as it continues to rise as a global power, it may become a force for good and a protector of the rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized in the world. Pope Francis rightly reminds us that “there is also a deeper hunger, the hunger for a happiness that only God can satisfy, the hunger for dignity. I am calling for prayer for each person in China that they may seek and realize the full measure of happiness that our Creator has given to them.”

Writing six weeks after a military coup plunged his own country into turmoil, Cardinal Bo said: “Many parts of the world are currently challenged, including my own country of Myanmar at this time, but in a spirit of solidarity it is right to focus not only on our own challenges but to pray also for others, in the clear knowledge that their well-being is closely linked to ours.”

In response to Cardinal Bo’s call, a website – GlobalPrayerforChina.org – was launched last week by an informal coalition of lay Christians from six continents who have joined together to facilitate the Global Week of Prayer. 

The website features resources for parishes and individuals, including up-to-date information on the persecution of Christians in China, as well as the genocide of the Uyghurs, repression in Tibet, the dismantling of democracy and human rights in Hong Kong and other injustices and threats to human dignity throughout China. It includes profiles of individual prisoners of conscience, and pastoral resources for prayers and homilies.

Cardinal Bo’s call is right, courageous and timely. It must not fall on deaf ears. In two weeks’ time, I hope that Catholics – and Christians more broadly – around the world will take up his request and devote time to praying for China, individually and collectively. Individuals can do so throughout the week in their personal, private prayers, and parishes can do so collectively during Mass. 

After a year in which the world has been plunged into crisis by a pandemic, evidence of a new genocide is mounting. A place that was until recently one of Asia’s most open cities has become a closed and repressed territory of fear. And the Church faces a level of persecution not seen for decades. It is right to pray for the Church and peoples suffering under the regime responsible for these acts of inhumanity and mendacity. It is right to pray for China.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer. He is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch, Senior Analyst for East Asia at the international human rights organisation CSW, co-founder and Deputy Chair of the UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and a board member of the Stop Uyghur Genocide Campaign.

The Global Week of Prayer for the Church and Peoples of China will be held from 23-30 May 2021. Resources are available at https://globalprayerforchina.org/

Source: thetablet.co.uk

USCIRF confirms “intensified religious persecution during the pandemic”

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The US Commission on International Religious Freedom annual report denounces that “the pandemic fostered misinformation targeting religious minorities”.

Persecution of religious minorities has intensified with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest USCIRF annual report. / Photo: Open Doors.,

Persecution of religious minorities has intensified with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest USCIRF annual report. / Photo: Open Doors.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a new edition of its annual report on religious persecution worldwide, focusing on the effect of the public health measures put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The commission’s chair, Gayle Manchin, pointed out that “this past year was challenging for most nations trying to balance public health concerns alongside the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief”.

As in previous editions, the USCIRF divides the document into several sections including a list of fourteen countries that it recommends the US State Department to consider as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs), and twelve more nations that “should be placed on the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL)”.

Furthermore, the commission presented a series of recommendations to the government and reviews whether those from the last report have been implemented, such as increasing aid to support religious minorities and religious freedom, increase the sanctions against those who violate this right, and designating the reality of the Uyghur people as genocide.

 

Changes in the Special Watch countries List

The CPCs are those where “their governments engage in or tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of the religious freedom rights. These include Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, India, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam.

For the first time ever, the State Department designated Nigeriaas a CPC in 2020, something that USCIRF “had been recommending since 2009”.

In its list of SWL countries, USCIRF mentions Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey and Uzbekistan, as well as Cuba and Nicaragua, after the State Department previously did so in December 2020.

The Central African Republic, Bahrain and Sudan are no longer on the list, because “although religious freedom concerns remain in all three countries, conditions last year did not meet the high threshold required to recommend SWL status”, explained USCIRF.

 

“The pandemic fostered misinformation targeting religious minorities”

As Open Doors did in its annual World Watch List, the USCIRF also warns that persecution has worsened during the pandemic.

“USCIRF’s 2021 Annual Report documents both the deepening of religious divides, and intensified religious persecution and violence during the global pandemics”, said USCIRF Vice Chair Anurima Bhargava.

But it also insists on “the swift and significant progress that can and has been made, as in Sudan, to support and strengthen religious communities of all faiths”.

According to the report, “while many of these restrictions were justifiable under public health exceptions defined in international law, some restrictions harmed religious minorities or otherwise violated freedom of religion or belief”.

“The pandemic also fostered a wave of misinformation targeting religious minorities”, underlines the document, which also stresses that “despite being obliged by international law, many governments have failed to respond adequately to that misinformation”.

 

New recommendations

“We urge the Biden administration and Congress to champion religious freedom and to center the safety and dignity of religious communities as foreign policy priorities”, reads the USCIRF report.

They also call on the Administration to “maintain the United States’ leadership roles in the Alliance and the International Contact Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief […] and to review US policy toward the CPC countries, to demonstrate meaningful consequences and encourage positive change”.

Furthermore, they call on the Congress to join other entities in promoting religious freedom, and to adopt a resolution to establish a Senate Human Rights Commission to monitor violations of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, among other abuses.

Read the full 2021 USCIRF report here.

Source: evangelicalfocus.com

Legislators urge Biden to address global religious persecution

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Washington D.C., May 6, 2021 / 19:00 pm America/Denver (CNA).

A bipartisan group of members of Congress asked President Biden this week to prioritize responding to global religious persecution.

“Religious freedom, one of the most basic human rights for all people, has historically been an area of sincere bipartisan support and agreement in American foreign policy,” stated a May 4 letter by members of both the House and Senate to President Biden.

The May 4 letter was led by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.). The members were joined by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), as well as Reps. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

“The United States is a beacon of hope and freedom, and we must continue to be a leader in calling attention and responding to religious persecution wherever it occurs,” they stated.

Citing the Pew Research Center’s annual study of global religious restrictions and persecution, the legislators called the current state of international religious persecution a “crisis.”

The members called on Biden to fill vacant positions in his administration that are charged with promoting international religious freedom.

In particular, they urged Biden to appoint an “experienced, well-qualified Ambassador-at-Large leading the International Religious Freedom office within the State Department.”

Such an appointment, they said, “is vital” to the agency’s “success” in promoting international religious freedom, countering religious persecution, and engaging with governments, religious leaders, NGOs, and civil society.

The coalition of legislators also asked Biden to appoint a Director of International Religious Freedom within the National Security Council.

“Having a designated point person to coordinate among all components of the U.S. Government that work to advance religious freedom abroad is vital to the success of these initiatives,” they stated.

In addition to filling the new positions, the legislators recommended the Biden administration pursue initiatives and actions to work with global allies on issues on religious freedom.

The members urged the administration to lead coalitions of actors in government, civil society, and foreign nations to create initiatives that protect religious freedom.

The letter said that because of China’s hostility towards religious groups in particular, the U.S. has an obligation to respond.

“China’s hostility toward religion and people of faith extends to Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and Christians, some of whom are unjustly imprisoned for their faith, such as Pastor John Cao,” the letter said.

The members argued that U.S. engagement was integral to the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was imprisoned in Turkey for more than two years. The legislators added that because of the prioritization of religious freedom, the U.S. has been able to “defend Coptic Christians in Egypt, denounce anti-conversion laws in India, and draw attention to the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.”

The coalition of legislators said they hope the administration “will work on a bipartisan basis with Congress to advance these policy items and prioritize the right of all people to have a faith, live their faith, change their faith or have no faith at all.”

Source: catholicnewsagency.com