The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty is warning of attacks on churches as "the largest threat to religious liberty in 2024” to the point where it threatens the lives of people of faith.
On Tuesday, the USCCB’s Committee on Religious Liberty released its annual report, titled “The State of Religious Liberty in the United States," which highlights developments on issues related to religious liberty including abortion, human sexuality and immigration across all three branches of government along with “national trends in politics, culture, and law.”
Per The Christian Post, The USCCB also outlined “the five largest threats to religious liberty in 2024 and five ways to respond” at the conclusion of the report.
“Were this threat limited to a continuation of the property crimes, that have been perpetrated on Catholic churches over recent years, perhaps it would not be the committee’s chief concern,” the report stated. “However, boiling tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict have elevated the chances of a terrorist attack on a synagogue or mosque."
Multiple Catholic Churches faced violence and vandalism following Politico’s publication of the leaked draft decision in the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concluded that the right to an abortion is not in the U.S. Constitution.
The USCCB also warned that “the highly charged atmosphere around the 2024 election might lead far-left extremists to escalate the severity of attacks on Catholic churches, and far-right extremists may view Catholic churches and Catholic Charities facilities as targets for anti-immigrant sentiment or, worse, violent action.”
The issue of abortion is expected to be on the ballot in the 2024 election in several states, including Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
Regarding the second threat to religious liberty, the Committee warned that the federal government’s interpretation of the Affordable Care Act could force doctors at Catholic hospitals to perform elective trans procedures on children.
The “threats to religious liberty in 2024” include concerns of possible restrictions by the federal government to Catholic nonprofits in ministering to illegal immigrants, people being forced "conform to the orthodoxy of gender ideology," and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requiring employers to give their employees paid leave, particularly workers who want an abortion.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
