The
National Catholic Register reports on the sense of urgency about threats to religious liberty expressed by speakers at Thursday's
National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Keynote speaker, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt, current permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke of threats of persecution of Christians in Iraq and Egypt, and then drew a parallel to the situation in the U.S.:
While nobody would confuse the marginalization of religion with the actual killing of Christians in other parts of the world, it is through this marginalizing that violent persecution is born.
Knights of Columbus head, Carl Anderson reflected a similar theme, saying:
I venture to say that never in the lifetime of anyone present here has the religious liberty of the American people been as threatened as it is today.
Also speaking, Mother Agnes Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life, said:
We face a summons to action in response to a global and national reality that we are reluctant to perceive: Christians as the object of open persecution.
