Notre Dame and Georgetown collaborate to study Christian responses to persecution

 

A project co-led by Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University recently received a $1.1 million grant from the Templeton Religious Trust to study the responses of various Christian communities to persecution.

The project, Under Caesar’s Sword: Christian Response to Persecution, has enlisted the help of 14 scholars around the world to classify and examine different responses—from armed resistance to civil disobedience to martyrdom.

The project’s proposal states that an estimated “76 percent of the world’s population lives in a religiously repressive country” and that “Christians are the victims of 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world.”

“Often these communities are very isolated, and they … don’t know the history of what other communities have done,” noted Daniel Philpott, Director of Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights.

The project aims to give these communities a “better sense of the options available to them,” Philpott explained. “If outsider attention could be brought to them, there could be protection, or there could be attention at least.”

“This project will not just put books on shelves,” stated Thomas Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown.

According to its webpage, Under Caesar’s Sword will produce a volume of essays, a web page, academic curriculum, an international conference, and a video documentary.

“One of the big thrusts of the project is getting the word out there,” Philpott said.

The education is not meant to stop with information. Farr hopes the project will change the way people fundamentally think about problems in the world.

“When you ask most American journalists or political leaders about ‘Well, what do you think is going on in China?’, the answers have to do with a lot of things—economic, relationship with North Korea, security matters, UN Security Council, on and on and on, all of which are important, but they leave out persecution of Christians, and we find that often to be the case,” he said.

Farr attributed this to the fact that “attention of the press and the public will move on to more immediate problems” while ongoing problems, such as persecution of Christians, are ignored.

“This is under-covered, under-reported by the mainstream media. This is a story that needs to be told,” Philpott agreed.

This project intends to examine the persecution of all Christians, regardless of geographical location or denomination, and other factors.  However, the leaders recognize the difficulties of interviewing individuals or observing communities in areas of severe oppression.

“Part of what we want to do is to help bring Notre Dame and Georgetown into solidarity with the Church … by being in solidarity with persecuted Christians,” Philpott stated.  “We see this as living out Notre Dame’s Catholic mission, by … being in solidarity with Christians who are living the Christian witness in the most profound way imaginable … This is the quintessence of what the Church should be.”

One particularly noticeable aspect of this endeavor is the fact that two of the most well-known Catholic universities in the country are working together on this project.

“This helps to build a bridge between Notre Dame and Georgetown,” said Philpott.

“We came together in order to provide a depth of resources and intellectual power of two Catholic universities,” Farr explained. “I am delighted that these two Catholic universities, which are often seen as … different understandings of Catholicism, different emphases, are cooperating in this very important venture.”

“I think the impact of Catholicism [on the project] will be precisely the focus on all Christians. Precisely because we are Catholic universities, we are not going to focus only on Catholics,” he continued. “This is, as I see it, very much the teaching of Dignitatis Humanae … a document which says, ‘religious freedom for everyone!’ … It is because we are Catholic that we will look at all Christian communities in hopes of providing helpful models and recommendations to all of them.”

 

For more information about Under Caesar’s Sword and upcoming events related to the project, visit humanrights.nd.edu.

 

Abby Bartels is a junior in Badin Hall studying political science. She is reading Aquinas for the fourth class this semester. Though she has not yet read all of the greatest of his works, she has gotten through Summa it. She can be reached at abartel2@nd.edu.