Religious minorities need protection, says top Vatican official

By Matt Fowler

VATICAN
CITY (CNS) — The “revolting reality” of recent wars shows just how
urgent it is that the international community act to protect religious
minorities in situations of conflict, a top Vatican official told the U.N.
General Assembly.

“As
all of us have seen, in the last several years in various blood-drenched parts
of the world, war and conflict often provide the backdrop for religious
minorities to be targeted,” which shows the need to focus on safeguarding
religious minorities in these situations, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Vatican
foreign minister, said Sept. 22 during a U.N. session devoted to a discussion
of protecting religious minorities in situations of conflict.

Although
every recognized faith group experiences some form of oppression globally,
Christians remain the most persecuted, the archbishop said, citing findings
from a number of extensively researched reports. The studies have shown that anti-Semitic
attacks have also increased, most notably in Europe, while Muslims continue to
face persecution from fundamentalists, he added.

“Thirty-eight
of the world’s 196 countries showed unmistakable evidence of significant religious
freedom violations, with 23 amounting to outright persecution,” said
Archbishop Gallagher. “When we survey the world situation, we see that
persecution of religious minorities is not a phenomenon isolated to one region.”

Archbishop
Gallagher listed some strategies that are essential for stopping the persecution
of religious minorities. They included:


Blocking the flow of money and weapons to those who intend to target and harm religious
minorities. “Stopping atrocities not only involves addressing the hatred
and cancers of the heart that spawn violence, but also removing the instruments
by which that hatred actually carries out that violence,” he said.


Dialogue between religious followers to overcome the assumption that
interreligious conflicts are unavoidable. “There is an urgent need for
effective interreligious dialogue as an antidote to fundamentalism,” he
said. That dialogue must aim “to overcome the cynical assumption that
conflicts among religious believers are inevitable, and to challenge the
narrow-minded interpretation of religious texts that demonize and dehumanize
those of different beliefs,” Archbishop Gallagher said.


Confronting and condemning the abuse of religion to justify terrorism and the
killing of innocent people in the name of God. “Social, political and
economic issues that demagogues can exploit to incite violence must also be
tackled,” he said.

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