“In 1965, Pope St. Paul VI promulgated the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, which stated that this right is founded ‘in the very dignity of the human person,’ so that everyone has a right to religious freedom,” the bishops said.
“The declaration went on to say governments must protect the rights and safeguard the religious freedom of all its citizens so that ‘no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, within due limits,’” they added.
Dolan and Malloy said that 80% of people live in nations with high levels of religious freedom restrictions, adding that they “have been steadily increasing for several years.”
“As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act, let us join with our Holy Father in his prayer ‘that freedom of conscience and freedom of religion will everywhere be recognized and respected; these are fundamental rights, because they make us free to contemplate the heaven for which we were created,’” the statement concluded.
The law created a new position in the State Department, the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, whose duties include promoting religious freedom abroad and advising the president on religious freedom matters.
Additionally, the act mandates a State Department report each year on the global state of international religious freedom. The most recent report can be found here.