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WASHINGTON (CNS) — The chairmen
of three U.S. bishops’ committees Jan. 31 expressed solidarity with the Muslim
community and expressed deep concern over religious freedom issues they said President
Donald Trump’s refugee ban raises.
Trump’s executive memorandum of
Jan. 27 “has generated fear and untold anxiety among refugees, immigrants and
others throughout the faith community in the United States,” said the committee
chairmen in a joint statement. “In response ‘ we join with other faith leaders
to stand in solidarity again with those affected by this order, especially our
Muslim sisters and brothers.”
“We also express our firm
resolution that the order’s stated preference for ‘religious minorities’ should
be applied to protect not only Christians where they are a minority, but all
religious minorities who suffer persecution, which includes Yezidis, Shia
Muslims in majority Sunni areas, and vice versa,” said the statement from by
Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Springfield, Massachusetts, Archbishop William
E. Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
They are, respectively, the
chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical
and Interreligious Affairs, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty
and Committee on International Justice and Peace.
“While we also recognize that
the United States government has a duty to protect the security of its people,
we must nevertheless employ means that respect both religious liberty for all,
and the urgency of protecting the lives of those who desperately flee violence
and persecution,” they said.
MORE TO COME
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