Cardinal Dolan: concern for persecuted Christians must become greater priority
November 12, 2013
In his last address as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York called upon his fellow bishops to make concern for persecuted Christians a priority.
“Our legitimate and ongoing struggles to protect our ‘first and most cherished freedom’ in the United States pale in comparison to the Via Crucis currently being walked by so many of our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, who are experiencing lethal persecution on a scale that defies belief,” he said. “If our common membership in the mystical body of Christ is to mean anything, then their suffering must be ours as well.”
“Protecting religious freedom will be a central social and political concern of our time, and we American bishops already have made very important contributions to carrying it forward,” he added. “Now we are being beckoned -- by history, by Pope Francis, by the force of our own logic and the ecclesiology of communion -- to extend those efforts to the dramatic front lines of this battle, where Christians are paying for their fidelity with their lives.”
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