Catholics join with Church of England in joint submission to UK’s review of government support for persecuted Christians
by David Adams, Sight Magazine:
Catholics and the Church of England have made a joint submission to an independent review of the UK’s support for persecuted Christians around the world.
The review, which was launched earlier this year, is charged with examining the role the country’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office plays in supporting suffering Christians and, according to its chair Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro, offering “ambitious policy recommendations”.
In a letter accompanying the submission, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Catholic Archbishop of Wesminster, and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said while Christians form an important part of the social fabric in almost every country around the world, in many places “our Christian sisters and brothers face persecution of an intensity and extent unprecedented in many centuries”.
They said the churches’ submission is shaped by the voices of those they’ve met during trips to the Middle East who are suffering for their faith as well as their commitment to make the voices of those suffering heard.
“They have told us of having to flee their homes, being stripped of all they own and seeing family members killed,” the two archbishops wrote, noting that threats to religious freedom or belief are not confined to Christians alone but are also a “widespread experience of the followers of other faiths” as well as “atheists and agnostics who seek to uphold crucial decisions of conscience”.
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