• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Father Liam McDonald, pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Montauk, N.Y., holds a monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament as he leads a Eucharistic procession in Montauk in observance of Religious Freedom Day Jan. 16, 2022. (OSV News photo/CNS file, Gregory A. Shemitz)

Global status of religious liberty ‘dire,’ House lawmakers warn

July 19, 2023
By Kate Scanlon
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, U.S. Congress, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — U.S. House lawmakers called the global status of religious liberty “dire” during a hearing July 18, citing concerns across the globe from China to Nicaragua.

At a hearing of the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations titled, “The Dire State of Religious Freedom Around the World,” lawmakers identified several countries where religious freedom is “under serious assault,” subcommittee chairman Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said.

“Tragically, billions of people around the world — half of the world’s population — are not able to practice their faith freely,” Smith said at the hearing. “Many are persecuted by oppressive governments or extremist groups — brutally attacked, tortured, jailed, and even slaughtered for their beliefs.”

Nigerian Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of Makurdi is pictured during an interview in Washington June 7, 2023. The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations held a July 18 hearing titled “The Dire State of Religious Freedom Around the World,” including among its witnesses Bishop Anagbe. (OSV News photo/courtesy Aid to the Church in Need-US)

Some of the countries identified by lawmakers on the panel include China, where Smith said the “Chinese Communist Party is committing horrific crimes against believers, including genocide against Uyghur Muslims,” and Nigeria, where Smith said he has “seen firsthand the aftermath of Boko Haram’s destruction of churches and mosques.”

“While on paper Nigeria has robust protections for all religions, violations of religious freedom are escalating,” he said. “Extremist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa commit indiscriminate violence against those they consider to be infidels. In the Middle Belt, Fulani Muslim extremists target and kill predominantly Christian farmers in brutal raids.”

Smith also took aim at “the Ortega regime’s brutal persecution of the church in Nicaragua,” referencing the committee’s earlier examination of what it called Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s anti-Catholic persecution.

“I remain deeply concerned for Bishop Álvarez, who was recently released only to be rearrested for bravely refusing to leave his country,” Smith said in reference to Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was sentenced in February to 26 years in prison the day after he refused to be deported to the U.S. with more than 200 other Nicaraguan political prisoners.

“The Ortega regime is attempting to silence the Catholic Church as the single most important independent institution remaining in Nicaragua, but it will not succeed,” Smith continued. “I am committed to doing everything possible to urge the release of all Nicaraguans imprisoned for their faith.”

“The challenge we face today is clear: to protect and expand freedom of conscience, the ability to freely believe or not to believe, in the face of the forces of authoritarianism and exclusion,” Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., said during remarks at the hearing. She noted these forces “have gained momentum in far too many corners of the world, including right here at home.”

“I am convinced that people of all faiths and backgrounds can find common ground in our most precious common resource, our democracy,” Wild said.

“When authoritarian forces attempt to use religion as a weapon to target specific groups of people, or to target our multiracial, multicultural democracy itself,” she said, “let us reject those forces with one voice across religious, political and social lines.”

When Smith told the witnesses that their testimony was important and he did not want to limit them to the five-minute opening statements that had each been allotted, Wild quipped the subcommittee’s hearings often run long because of “the courtesies of our chair,” prompting laughter in the room.

Witnesses included Rabbi Abraham Cooper, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Eric Patterson, president of the Religious Freedom Institute; the Rev. Susan Hayward, associate director of the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative at Harvard Divinity School’s Religion and Public Life Program; and Rashad Hussain, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

The witnesses described challenges to religious liberty across the globe, with Rabbi Cooper describing the U.S. international religious freedom commission’s recent annual report on “governments (that) engage in or tolerate, systematic, ongoing and egregious, violations of religious freedom.” He said Nigeria remains of concern to the group as “religious freedom conditions have remained abysmal with state and non-state actors committing particularly severe violations against both Christians and Muslims.”

Smith, who is Catholic, said religious liberty is “one of America’s founding ideals — a cornerstone of our democracy — and it is an internationally recognized human right.”

“It is the right to practice one’s religion according to the dictates of one’s own conscience,” he said. “This God-given right — like all fundamental human rights — flows from the innate dignity and value of every human being, and it deserves to be protected everywhere — without exception.”

Promoting religious freedom, he said, is a “pillar of U.S. foreign policy.”

“Assaults on religious freedom are a major threat to U.S. national security, and they are intensifying. The worst violators of religious freedom globally are often the biggest threats to our nation — and that is no coincidence,” he said. “Authoritarianism is on the rise, with oppressive governments cracking down on religious minorities that are seen as a challenge to power.”

Smith also expressed particular concern about “the rising tide of antisemitism worldwide,” calling it “cause for serious alarm.”

“With no sign of abating anywhere, Jewish women, men and children continue to suffer bias, cruelty, hate and violence simply because they are Jewish,” he said. “And that this pernicious manifestation of evil needs to be exposed and more effectively combatted. The purveyors of antisemitism never take a holiday — nor should we.”

Read More Religious Freedom

French town near city with papal history to mark 100 years since Martyrs of Orange beatification

Civil rights probe launched over state abuse reporting law’s lack of Catholic confession protections

Trump establishes religious liberty commission including Cardinal Dolan, Bishop Barron

Justices to decide on Catholic charter schools after hearing case

Washington Roundup: Trump, Biden to attend papal funeral; ‘Anti-Christian bias’ task force convened

Religious freedom, migration on agenda as Vance meets Cardinal Parolin

Copyright © 2023 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Kate Scanlon

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Chicago native Cardinal Prevost elected pope, takes name Leo XIV

  • U.S. cardinal’s résumé, demeanor land him on ‘papabile’ lists

  • Who was Pope Leo XIII, the father of social doctrine?

  • Kenyan cardinal claims he wasn’t invited for conclave; Vatican says invite is automatic

  • Advocates of abuse victims are rooting for a Filipino pope — and it’s not Cardinal Tagle

| Latest Local News |

Immaculate Conception School students ‘elect’ pope in their own ‘conclave’

Baltimore-area Catholics pray for new pope, express excitement for his leadership

Archbishop Lori surprised, heartened by selection of American pope

Missionary discipleship sees growth after Seek the City initiative

Knights of Columbus honored for pro-life support

| Latest World News |

Pope Leo prays for vocations, for peace and for mothers on Mother’s Day

Pope Leo: A pope is nothing more than a humble servant

French town near city with papal history to mark 100 years since Martyrs of Orange beatification

Pilgrim Passport to 3 Wisconsin Marian shrines help faithful mark their Jubilee journey

Pope Leo to inaugurate his papacy May 18; a look at his May calendar

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope Leo prays for vocations, for peace and for mothers on Mother’s Day
  • Pope Leo: A pope is nothing more than a humble servant
  • Immaculate Conception School students ‘elect’ pope in their own ‘conclave’
  • French town near city with papal history to mark 100 years since Martyrs of Orange beatification
  • Pilgrim Passport to 3 Wisconsin Marian shrines help faithful mark their Jubilee journey
  • Who is our new pope, Pope Leo XIV?
  • Pope Leo to inaugurate his papacy May 18; a look at his May calendar
  • Report: Some House GOP members object to removing Planned Parenthood funds from Trump bill
  • Movie Review: ‘Another Simple Favor’

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED