
Religious News From Around the Web November 16, 2020
- By WRN Editorial Staff --
- 16 Nov 2020 --
Pope Vows to “Uproot Evil” of Clerical Sexual Abuse, Ten Million Hindus Could Meet During Pandemic,Government Restrictions on Religion at All-Time High, Justice Alioto Decries COVID Restrictions on Religious Freedom, Cuomo Slammed for Religious Freedom Restrictions, China Waging “Second Cultural Revolution” Against Buddhism
Pope Vows to “Uproot Evil” of Clerical Sexual Abuse
The Vatican this month published A Report on the Holy See’s Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 to 2017) McCarrick, the ex-archbishop of Washington, is accused of sexual abuse and has been stripped of his authority. The report details what decisions were made regarding McCarrick, what mistakes were made and how such matters will be addressed in future.
Ten Million Hindus Could Meet During Pandemic
Government Restrictions on Religion at All-Time High
The Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life reported that in 2018 government restrictions on religion reached the highest point since Pew began keeping track in 2007. Authoritarian governments have ramped up the use of detentions and physical abuse, with examples from Armenia, Burma, Uzbekistan, and China. “The Chinese government restricts religion in a variety of ways,” said the Pew study, “including banning entire religious groups (such as the Falun Gong movement and several Christian groups), prohibiting certain religious practices, raiding places of worship and detaining and torturing individuals. In 2018, the government continued a detention campaign against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslims in Xinjiang province, holding at least 800,000 (and possibly up to 2 million) in detention facilities ‘designed to erase religious and ethnic identities,’ according to the U.S. State Department.”
Justice Alito Decries COVID Restrictions on Religious Freedom
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said in an online talk to the Federalist Society “The pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty … It is an indisputable statement of fact, we have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020.” He made an example of Nevada’s governor who limited church attendance, while bars, casinos and indoor amusement parks remained open. Alito said that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, which protects religious liberty, “does not contain a ‘craps clause’ or a ‘blackjack clause’ or a ‘slot machine clause.’”
Cuomo Slammed for Religious Freedom Restrictions
via Wikimedia Commons
China Waging “Second Cultural Revolution” Against Buddhism