Vatican diplomat testifies before Congress, denounces persecution of Middle East’s
Christians
February 13, 2014: Testifying before a House subcommittee, the apostolic nuncio to
the United Nations lamented the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and urged
the United States and other leading nations to work to defend them.
“Flagrant
and widespread persecution of Christians rages in the Middle East even as we meet,”
said Archbishop Francis Chullikatt. “No Christian is exempt, whether or not he or
she is Arab. Arab Christians, a small but significant community, find themselves the
target of constant harassment for no reason other than their religious faith.”
“One
of the most graphic illustrations of ongoing brutality confronting Arab Christians
is the emergence of a so-called ‘tradition’ of bombings of Catholic and other Christian
houses of worship every Christmas Eve, which has been going on now for the past several
years,” he added. “Will there be no end in sight for this senseless slaughter for
those whom that very night proclaim the Prince of Peace in some of the oldest Christian
communities in the world?”
“Noble efforts” to defend religious freedom at the
United Nations, he continued, “fail to receive the profile they justly deserve on
the world stage. Only member states, especially those with leadership profiles like
the United States, can take decisive steps to ensure that the non-derogable human
right of religious liberty becomes more robustly protected worldwide.”
Archbishop
Chullikatt also noted that religious freedom is under attack in historically Christian
nations:
Even in some of the western democracies, the longstanding paragons
of human rights and freedoms, we find instances of increasingly less subtle signs
of persecution, including the legal prohibition of the display of Christian symbols
and imagery – legitimate expressions of belief that for centuries has enriched culture
– be they on the person or on public property. This suggests a profound identity crisis
at the heart of these great democracies, which owe to their encounter with Christianity
both their origin and culture, including their human rights culture.
The House
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
also heard testimony on the worldwide persecution of Christians from representatives
of Alliance Defending Freedom, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and Impulso 18, as
well as from Catholic writer John Allen. (Source: CWN)