There is something in excess and something lacking in the Report on the persecution of minorities on the grounds of belief or religion, the resolution on the persecution of religious minorities approved today in plenary assembly by the European Parliament.
The news was released a few hours ago and leaves disconcerted those who, like iFamNews, truly believe in freedom and religious liberty, convinced that today’s resolution could represent a strong signal on a subject often addressed in Europe with a certain timidity.
“The affirmation of freedom of belief as a fundamental human right is a good thing,” says Carlo Fidanza, MEP of Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), a member of the political group European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and co-chair of the European Parliament Intergroup for Religious Freedom. Also good, he continues, is “the willingness to include respect for this right in the cooperation agreements between the EU and third countries, the call to the EU Commission to immediately appoint the Special Envoy for Religious Freedom, a figure that has been missing for too long“.
However, all this talk of religious freedom as a fundamental freedom is of little use, or perhaps of no use at all, if precise references to persecuted religious communities and groups and to the regimes that literally crucify them disappear from the revised and amended text. Christians, to put it bluntly, are the most persecuted religious minority in the world today. This is to clarify what is missing in the resolution
However, as we said, there is something in excess in the resolution, definitely too much of something and wrong at the same time: an unacceptable ideological drift that led many to abstain from “a text that started with the best intentions and has instead become yet another ideological tool of the left”, as it turned out of “ideological references against religions that protect life and the natural family”.
The reference is in particular to Article 22 of the resolution, an ideological mixture that hides behind the veil of defense of the weakest, especially the legitimate rights of women and girls, the most radical LGBT+ instances, as well as abortion and contraception passed off as “sexual and reproductive health”. While it rightly “[…] condemns all acts or incitement to violence, persecution, coercion, and discrimination,” including “[…] on the basis of religious motivation or belief,” the Article in question simultaneously “[…] expresses deep concern about the misuse and instrumentalization of belief or religion to criminalize abortion in all cases,” thus calling for “[…] the repeal of related policies, laws, or restrictions.” Let me explain what you’ve just read: protecting religious freedom should guarantee access to abortion. And Europe demands this.
Religious freedom is a fundamental right of the person, for which iFamNews fights and is right to fight. It is evident, however, that someone is transforming this sacrosanct and good thing into its exact opposite, trying to pass off real filth, such as abortion, as a right to religious freedom, while simultaneously and repeatedly stating in the same text that the right to life is fundamental and indispensable. Although the text of the resolution is obviously the result of compromises between many different visions, the contradiction remains evident. Those who endorsed it are confused, if not hypocritical.