October 30, 2024 // National

Bishop Rhoades, Bishop Zaidan: ‘Religious Freedom Is a Basic Human Right’

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

To commemorate International Religious Freedom Day, which was celebrated on Sunday, October 27, Bishop Rhoades and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan released a statement through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reiterating that “the Catholic Church teaches that religious freedom is a basic human right, which has even been called the ‘synthesis and summit of all other fundamental rights,’” citing the Vatican’s International Theological Commission.

The statement underscores the importance of religious freedom both in the United States and abroad. In a news release, officials with the USCCB shared that the international Catholic humanitarian relief organization Aid to the Church in Need in its most recent worldwide report found “religious freedom violations in 61 countries where 4.9 billion people live.”

“Religious freedom allows all persons to seek the truth about God and to respond to the truth when it is grasped,” wrote Bishop Rhoades, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Religious Liberty, and Bishop Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, who is chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace. “Sadly, throughout the world, people of faith do not enjoy this privilege. As Christians, we seek to build up the common good by fostering peace, tolerance, and respect for the dignity of others, but blasphemy and apostasy laws in many countries essentially criminalize what should be a person’s ability to choose one’s own religion. Other countries stifle religious freedom by forcing faith communities to support the state.”

The bishops continued: “Pope Francis has repeatedly emphasized the importance of religious freedom as a basic, primary, and inalienable right that must be promoted everywhere. Here in the United States, the USCCB has not only echoed our Holy Father’s call, but made advocacy of religious freedom a high priority in public policy deliberations, most recently supporting the reauthorization of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Let us uphold freedom of religion and pray that globally, the dignity of the human person will be recognized, tolerated, and respected.”

According to USCCB officials, “The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created in 1998 and monitors and reports on the worst violations of religious freedom globally in countries such as China, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Russia, and Syria.”