Though the Christian communities around Erbil, like much of Iraq, were spared by the first wave of the pandemic, the numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths rose dramatically over the summer and appear now on the cusp of another significant acceleration.
Religious Freedom
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Is Nigeria’s new business reform law a threat to religious freedom?
President Buhari’s push to corporatize religious houses is causing tension with religious leaders who accuse him of bias against Christians.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Brooklyn Diocese sues Gov. Cuomo over renewed Mass restrictions in Covid-19 ‘hotspots’
In a press statement released on Oct. 8, the diocese said that the decision to restrict attendance at Mass to as few as 10 people in the worst-affected zip codes is a violation of the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Coalition says security grant program for houses of worship needs more funding
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has administered the Nonprofit Security Grant Program since its creation by Congress in 2005. The program initially received $25 million in funding, and Congress provided $90 million for the program in fiscal year 2020.
Posted inPodcasts, Politics & Society
Voting Catholic: Is religious liberty in jeopardy in America?
George Weigel warns that the 2020 Democratic platform “threatens to rinse out religious freedom and reduce it to a question of personal lifestyle choice.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Russia’s Catholic Church warns against proposed curbs on clergy
Church officials’ concerns stem from draft amendments to Russia’s 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, which would bar “clergy who receive religious education abroad” from ministering unless they obtain “recertification within a Russian religious organization” and “receive additional professional education.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Summit speakers discuss ongoing efforts to combat religious persecution
“Any religious adherent can be a victim,” he said, and the oppressor can be “whoever has the power of the state behind them.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
San Francisco warned ‘draconian’ limits on worship may violate Constitution
Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice told Breed that “San Francisco’s treatment of places of worship raises serious concerns about religious freedom.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
House bans China imports made by forced Uighur labor
The U.S. House in a nearly unanimous vote passed an act that would ban imports to the U.S. from China’s Xinjiang region, the heartland of the Uighur Muslim people and where over 1 million Uighurs are reportedly living in forced labor camps.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
Has anti-Catholic bias disappeared in American public life, or has it taken new forms?
Fay Vincent, the former commissioner of Major League Baseball, recalls anti-Catholic bias and asks if it is now taking more subtle forms, including attacks on the ”dogma” of Amy Coney Barrett.