The White House last month appointed Archbishop Charles
Chaput president to a one-year term on the U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom. Here, the Denver archbishop shares some of
his basic concerns.
Q: What is the role of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom,
and how does it impact on the world?
Archbishop Chaput: Under the 1998 International
Religious Freedom Act, the commission advises the U.S. State Department on
global religious freedom issues, but it also has an autonomous voice. So it has
two aspects.
On the one hand, it assists the State Department in making religious freedom an
important part of U.S. foreign policy decisions. On the other hand, it
independently identifies violations of religious freedom around the world, and
it seeks to raise public awareness of those offending governments.
The commission holds hearings and issues an annual report that includes
Countries of Particular Concern. No nation wants to be on that list. It also
develops country-specific reports on challenges to religious freedom in places
like Sudan or Vietnam. To the degree it can influence the White House, Congress
and State Department, the commission can have quite an impact.
Q: Do you think that nations around the world really understand the concept of
religious freedom?
Archbishop Chaput: No. The guarantee of religious
freedom is beautifully stated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, but many countries simply ignore it or interpret it in very
distorted ways.
Attacks on religious freedom usually take two forms -- secular governments like
North Korea that see religious faith as a competing ideology, a competing idea
of the human person; or religiously extremist regimes like Iran that want to
marginalize religious minorities.
Religious faith is a very powerful force in shaping both individual behavior
and society in general. So if your goal as a government is maintaining and
extending your control over a society, religious freedom can be seen as very
dangerous.
Q: Some people see defending religious freedom as an intrusion of the church,
especially the Catholic Church, into politics and global affairs.
Archbishop Chaput: That kind of criticism has only
one purpose: to bully Catholics and other religious believers into being silent
when they should speak up. People need to act on their convictions, especially
their religious beliefs, or their convictions eventually disappear.
Politics is the application of power to human affairs. The use of power always
raises moral, and therefore religious, questions about the nature of right and
wrong, and what constitutes the common good. So the Church would be very
foolish -- in fact, she would be unfaithful to her mission -- if she didn't
actively promote religious freedom. How a society thinks about God, sooner or
later shapes how it treats the human person.
Q: What's the right meaning of the "separation of church and state,"
and how does that relate to religious freedom?
Archbishop Chaput: Religious freedom does not require
an irreligious state. I think it's possible for a society to give preferential
status to one religion without automatically persecuting others.
But the devil is in the details. Many Muslims would claim that Islamic law,
Shariah, achieves this by favoring Islam while guaranteeing
certain rights to Jews and Christians. But the historical record shows the
opposite: that Shariah actually marginalizes and
oppresses Christians and other religious believers and prevents them from fully
participating in the life of the nation.
In Saudi Arabia, a Muslim who converts to Christianity risks his or her life,
and all non-Muslim religious practice is banned. These are fundamental
violations of Article 18 -- very serious violations of the human right to
religious freedom.
A genuine faith in God should always lead us to a deeper respect for the rights
of the human person, including people with different religions from our own,
because we're all created by the same Father. So the United States has a unique
opportunity and vocation.
It can offer a great example to the world of different religions living
amicably with one another and cooperating for the common good. That can only
happen, of course, if religious believers take their faith peacefully but
vigorously into the public square -- including the voting booth.
"Separation of church and state" should never mean exiling religion
from public affairs. The Constitution forbids the establishment of a specific
state church. It does not forbid, and the founders never intended to forbid,
active religious involvement in public debate.
Q: How does Catholic thought understand the participation of Catholics in
politics?
Archbishop Chaput: Politics is where the work takes
place to ensure the common good and individual human dignity. So Catholics need
to be very involved. They need to understand their Catholic faith, and they
need to rely on it as a guide in their political decisions.
Vatican II's pastoral constitution on the Church in
the modern world ["Gaudium et Spes"], declaration on religious liberty ["Dignitatis Humanae"] and the
social encyclicals, including "Evangelium
Vitae," are tremendous resources.
Catholics should welcome cooperation with people of other religions, or no
religion, who share a spirit of good will. The one thing Catholics cannot do is
claim to be "Catholic" and then keep their faith out of their
political actions.
You can't personally believe in the humanity of the unborn child, and then vote
for a law that allows the killing of that child. You can't personally support
religious freedom, and then be silent about an "ally" that persecutes
religious minorities. That's a form of lying.