'Religious freedom fosters peace,' USCCB committee chairs say in joint statement

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- The chairmen of the U.S. bishops' committees on international policy and religious liberty are calling attention to the repression and persecution of religion as being detrimental to peace.

"Religious freedom fosters peace," said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, who heads the St. Louis-based Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. "Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV said recently that a culture of peace requires full respect for religious freedom in every country, since religious experience is an essential dimension of the human person."

"Repression and persecution of religion is ultimately detrimental to the peaceful development of all nations," the two bishops said.

They made the comments in a statement released Oct. 22 in advance of the U.S. observance of the International Religious Freedom Day on Oct. 27 to commemorate the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. It was passed, and signed into law by President Bill Clinton to promote religious freedom as a foreign policy of the United States.

Bishop Zaidan is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, and Bishop Rhoades is chairman of the USCCB's Committee for Religious Liberty.

"Let us stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are suffering, and let us resolve to do our part to promote religious freedom for all people around the world," they said.

"Across the world, millions of people are denied the basic right to religious freedom, a denial that fuels violent conflict and hinders human development," they said. "In recent years, for example, thousands of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have been kidnapped and killed by Islamist extremists, while the government has imprisoned members of both religious groups for blasphemy."

"In many other countries as well," they added, "people of faith are under consistent assault, while their governments engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom."

Bishops Zaidan and Rhoades urged the faithful, as followers of Jesus Christ," not to "lose hope" even "at a time when war is seemingly non-ending, the evil of political violence persists, and political discourse is shaped by intense polarization and division"

On International Religious Freedom Day, "let us try to see Christ in each other," they stated. "We must stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are suffering, and resolve to do our part to promote religious freedom for all people around the world."

"May our religious practice, and the practice of other believers cultivate ‘the purification of heart necessary for building peaceful relationships,'" they concluded.

Provisions of the International Religious Freedom Act established an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom within the Department of State; created the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; and provided for a special adviser on international religious freedom within the National Security Council.