Link foreign aid to religious freedom – Primate

Ireland’s most-senior Churchman has said that governments should consider withholding foreign aid from countries where freedom of religion is not upheld.
Archbishop Eamon Martin was speaking at a ceremony outside St Patrick’s Cathedral in his Armagh Archdiocese where the cathedral was illuminated in red to highlight the persecution faced by Christians in many parts of the world.
It is part of a week of events from November 19-26 organised by Aid to the Church in Need to highlight the plight of persecuted Christians and show solidarity. Organiers are urging people to use the social media hashtag #RedWednesday to the highlight events which culminate on Wednesday November 22.
Archbishop Martin, Primate of All-Ireland, told the gathering that “it is shocking to realise that in the 21st Century, Christians continue to be persecuted, displaced, intimidated, tortured, and even executed on account of their faith”.
Dr Martin said that “the witness and martyrdom of so many persecuted Christians around the world challenges me this #RedWednesday to ask: ‘what does their suffering mean for us?’
“Surely it means more than simply lighting our churches red or wearing a red armband for the day?” he said.
Calling Catholics to concrete action, the archbishop said that “those who do not respect freedom of thought, conscience and religion must be held to account.
“We should call on our Governments, in these islands, to put on the agenda of their foreign policies, respect for the freedom to manifest religion or belief, whether in teaching, practice, worship or observance”.
He added that “the insistence that countries uphold this freedom should form an important part of decisions to allocate aid funding.”
Referring to the responsibility Christians in Ireland face, Archbishop Martin said that “the martyrdom and witness of our fellow Christians invites us to consider how we ourselves witness to our faith in Irish society.
“Our call to witness,” he said, “compels us to courageously present in public discourse our sincerely-held Christian convictions about the dignity of the person and the sacredness of all human life, about marriage and the family; about the widening gap between rich and poor and the need for solidarity and a fair distribution of goods in the world; about care for the Earth, our Common Home; about the need to build a society that is marked by peace, justice and care for all, especially the most vulnerable”.