OTTAWA (CCN)—Standing up for religious freedom means more than simply making a statement of support once a year on International Religious Freedom Day, says the former head of Canada’s Office for Religious Freedom.
“As Catholics, we are called upon to live our religious freedom every day and live it in our daily lives,” Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, director of the Cardus Institute for Religious Freedom, said in an interview with Canadian Catholic News.
“In some ways, we as Catholics, have privatized our faith and express it only in the pew. We must live our faith every day,” Canada’s former religious freedom ambassador said.
Both the Canadian and U.S. governments released statements on International Religious Freedom Day Oct. 27 pledging their commitment to religious freedom.
“International Religious Freedom Day is an important occasion to assert the universal human right of all people to practise their religion and hold beliefs, without discrimination, violence or abuse,” said Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
In a statement recognizing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability of people to observe their faith in a public way, Champagne acknowledged “many situations of persecution and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said Canada remains concerned by “the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia; the ongoing persecution of Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other faith and belief communities in China; the continued economic exclusion of Baha’is in Iran; and the imprisonment of Christians in North Korea.”
As a “multicultural, multi-faith and multi-ethnic society,” Canada will “continue to stand up for human rights, including the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief, at home and around the world,” Champagne said.
Father Deacon Bennett said Canadians who care about human rights must be willing to speak out in favour of the principle of religious freedom, regardless of whether they are people of faith.
When it comes to overt government actions that target religious faith communities such as in China, “we cannot be afraid to challenge those who try to repress religious freedom,” Father Deacon Bennett said.
“In China . . . they are writing the textbook on religious persecution,” he said. The oppressors will take our silence as consent.”
Father Deacon Bennett, who headed the religious freedom office until it was shuttered in 2016 by the Trudeau government, said while there are life and death challenges to religious freedom around the globe, religious liberties in North America are also under attack and that people of faith, whether Christian, Catholic, or of another faith, must be able to live their faith in an open manner.
“People have to be able to fully be themselves in the public square,” he said, and that means that people of faith and those who do not follow a faith must all be treated with the same level of dignity.”
