In an article in the most recent issue of Legatus Magazine, Thomas Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute, writes on the rise of religious persecution throughout the world and the decline of religious freedom in the West.

In addressing the global spread of religious persecution, Farr points to alarming restrictions and attacks on individual and institutional religious freedom in Iraq and China.

Turning to the United States, Farr writes:

For over two centuries religious freedom was styled as “the first freedom” of America because it was understood as necessary for individual, social, and political flourishing. That understanding is now under assault.

Farr insists that American Catholics should respond to these threats by exercising the freedoms guaranteed to them in the First Amendment and defending religious freedom for others. They should also, Farr continues, “Demand that [the U.S.] government’s foreign policy advance religious freedom for everyone.”

Read the full article: “Protect religious freedom by exercising it, defending for others.”