Filipina overcomes fears of the future to become Catholic
British bishop urges Catholics to speak out on behalf of persecuted
The rise in attacks on Bangladesh's atheist bloggers has drawn the attention of church leaders worldwide.
British Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton is calling on Catholics to speak on behalf of the persecuted, including atheists.
"The Catholic community in England and Wales has a role to play in ensuring that the government maintains this position and continues to speak out when people are imprisoned, tortured or killed on account of their atheism," the bishop said in a column in the Universe, a Catholic newspaper in Great Britain and Ireland.
Bishop Lang, chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales Department for International Affairs, was responding to the case of the atheist blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, in Bangladesh who was murdered by a mob two years ago for stating his beliefs, the Catholic Herald reported.
Bishop Lang said that when confronted with these injustices Catholics cannot simply "stand by" pointing out that "history has shown time and time again that when one minority group is oppressed with impunity, others soon face the same fate."
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