Why US International Religious Freedom Policy Fails

by George Weigel IN HIS JUNE 13 testimony before the National Security Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform, Dr. Thomas Farr of Georgetown’s Berkley Center described the failures of U.S. international religious freedom policy over the past decade and a half and suggested some of the structural reasons for that failure: lack of […]

Archbishop Asks House To Guard Religious Liberty

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty has urged the House of Representatives to extend long-standing federal conscience protections to the Affordable Care Act’s new coverage mandates for private health plans. Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore made the request in a letter to members of the […]

Nuncio Sees Threats to Religious Liberty in U.S.

by Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) – In a Nov. 4 speech at the University of Notre Dame, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. warned that the “menace to religious liberty is concrete on many fronts” today particularly “within your own homeland.” Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, speaking in South Bend, Ind., at a university-sponsored conference on […]

2012 – The Issues – Religious Freedom – At Home and Abroad

by Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) – Over the past several months, the U.S. Catholic bishops and other religious leaders have urged Americans to defend religious liberty in the United States in the face of what they see as threats to that freedom. And the issue continues to gain momentum as the November election draws near. […]

Religious Liberty Is Issue for Candidates

by Wendy Long While crisscrossing the state in my campaign for the U.S. Senate, I was recently sitting around a table talking with some women. I asked them, “What’s the most important issue facing our nation and our state?” The tears welled up in one woman’s eyes, then spilled down her cheeks. “Wendy, my daughter […]

Religious Freedom: Conference Speakers See Threats, Say Now Is the Time to Act (with audio)

Religious liberty is facing such grave threats in the United States that Catholics must take immediate and courageous action to defend fundamental values in the public forum and in the privacy of the voting booth, according to speakers at a Sept. 20 forum. Almost 500 people assembled at St. John’s University, Jamaica, heard impassioned calls […]

Restrictions on Religion Are on the Rise in US

by Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) – The increase of restrictions on religion are up worldwide, and, for the first time, those restrictions increased markedly in the U.S., according to a new Pew report. For the United States, it was the first time in the study’s four-year history that both government restrictions and social hostility were […]

Cardinal Traces History of Religious Liberty in U.S.

by Patricia Zapor WASHINGTON (CNS) – To the enthusiastic reception of an audience of John Carroll Society members Sept. 10, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan traced the historic origins of U.S. religious freedom in light of a current battle with the government over those rights. Saying that he wanted to “restore the luster” on […]

Marriage, Religious Liberty Among Knights’ Concerns

by Elizabeth Deffner ANAHEIM, Calif. (CNS) – Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson called the number of attendees at the Knights of Columbus 130th Supreme Convention in Anaheim “a testament to the growth and development” of the international fraternal organization. More than 2,000 Knights from around the world – many of them with their wives and […]

Pilgrims Walk 100 Miles For Religious Freedom

ANTIETAM CREEK, Md. (CNS) – Three days and 30 miles into a 100-mile trek to Baltimore from the tiny central Maryland town of Hancock, Laura Dudich lost count of her blisters. “My foot is covered in Band-Aids right now,” said the 17-year-old parishioner of St. Peter Church in Hancock, pausing briefly July 31 as she […]