Citing a study that found 75 out of every 100 people killed for religious hatred are Christian, the Vatican’s representative at the U.N. offices in Geneva is reiterating that freedom of religion is at the heart of fundamental human rights.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, permanent representative of the Holy See to the U.N. offices in Geneva, affirmed this last Wednesday when he addressed the 16th ordinary session of the Human Rights Council on religious freedom.
He said that an “increased proliferation of episodes of discrimination and acts of violence” shows how principles proclaimed in law are being denied in practice.
And religious strife, the archbishop warned, “is a danger to social, political, and economic development. Religious conflict polarizes society, breaking the bonds necessary for social life and commerce to flourish. It produces violence, which robs people of the most fundamental right of all, the right to life. And it sows seeds of distrust and bitterness that can be passed down through the generations.”
Referring to the frequency with which Christians are the target of religious hatred (75 out of 100 people killed), the prelate asserted that such a “concentration of religious discrimination should cause concern to all of us.”
“But,” he added, “the Holy See’s purpose in this intervention is to reaffirm the importance of the right to freedom of religion for all individuals, for all communities of faith, and for every society, in all parts of the world.”
GENEVA, Switzerland, MARCH 7, 2011 (Zenit.org)