Experiencing the wideness in God’s mercy in Washington DC

Three days ago, in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., I lit candles for Myanmar, North Korea, China, and Jimmy Lai, the 76-year-old devout Catholic entrepreneur and pro-democracy campaigner currently in prison and on trial in Hong Kong, and for all political prisoners in his city and around the world.

I prayed in front of the image of Our Lady of China, and in the chapel of Mary, Help of Christians, to ask the Blessed Mother to intercede.

The readings last Sunday started with a passage from the Book of Job. The homily was based on the day’s first reading, which is one of despair, misery and hopelessness. The preacher spoke of the world’s woes “frequently presented to us on political, economic, or justice and human rights issues.”

At that moment, I felt in the very depths of my heart and soul the pain and apparent hopelessness for the places that are closest to my heart. After over 30 years of human rights advocacy on my part, have Myanmar, North Korea, China, or Hong Kong improved?

On the contrary, there has been a grave deterioration in all their situations.

Other places where I have been engaged — such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives — have also not improved.

“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope”

Perhaps the only country where I have been involved that has been on a somewhat upward trajectory, albeit fragile, is Timor-Leste. And I am pleased that my friend, President of Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, recently met Pope Francis.

The day before Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine, I strolled in the beautiful winter sunshine from the Capitol directly down the Mall to the Washington Monument, past the White House and the various museums, to the Lincoln Memorial, and from there around the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson Memorial via the Martin Luther King Jr. and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorials.

As I did so, my spirit soared. If Job was depressed by the state of the world, I gained inspiration from the founding fathers of the world’s most remarkable democratic experiment, which grew to be the leader of the free world.

Of the very many sayings of Martin Luther King Jr. which are carved into his memorial and which are etched on my soul, one, in particular, sings out, as a modern-day sign of contradiction to Job: “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope”.

So too does Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s call for us to be “the great arsenal of democracy.”

If we don’t live, believe, defend and promote democracy, who will?

There are lines from Roosevelt that trouble me though. He spoke of “freedom of worship,” but not “freedom of religion or belief.”

Freedom of worship is a gross limitation. Our souls are not confined to the church, the mosque, the synagogue, or the temple on the holy days when we worship. Our souls are meant to be set free to inform, infuse and inspire every aspect of our lives.

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime is ‘at war with faith'”

The human heart does not want simply the freedom to worship, but the freedom to think, question, share, doubt, change and sing, in the public square as well as in places of worship.

That was the clear message of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, which brought together earlier in the week a gathering of people of every religion, and none, from around the world to unpack this precious right.

That is why two days earlier, I testified at a hearing of the United States Congress, chaired by Congressman Chris Smith.

Among those who testified at the hearing, held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), were Uyghur activist Rushan Abbas, University of Texas academic Rana Siu Inboden, Canadian scholar Emile Dirks, and Sophie Luo, wife of Chinese dissident Ding Jiaxi.

In my testimony, I spoke of the crackdown on Christians — both Catholic and Protestant — and Falun Gong, the crime against humanity of forced organ harvesting as found by the China Tribunal, the atrocities against Tibetans and the genocide of the Uyghurs.

I quoted the former US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, who said in a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong in 2019 that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime is “at war with faith” — but that “it is a war they will not win.”

I spoke also of the renewed threats to freedom in Hong Kong, through the implementation of the dreaded Article 23 security law and the continuing trials of Jimmy Lai and the 47 pro-democracy legislators and activists who have spent the past three years in jail awaiting trial for the simple “crime” of holding a primary election to choose their candidates for what should have been Hong Kong’s Legislative Council elections.

Throughout my three decades of human rights advocacy, I have known many friends who have been jailed — in Hong Kong, China, Myanmar, The Maldives and elsewhere. At least two of my friends have been assassinated, in Pakistan and Myanmar, and several others survived assassination attempts. Many of my friends live with daily death threats. I myself have been deported, denied entry, threatened with jail and described as a “collaborator.”

And yet unlike Job, I do not despair. I take inspiration from the examples of those I have had the privilege of knowing personally, on the frontlines of the fight for freedom, who have exhibited immense courage, humility, good humor and faith and have never given up.

At the end of Mass at the National Shrine three days ago, we sang a wonderful hymn that speaks of “a wideness in God’s mercy.” It is that mercy to which we must appeal every day, to equip us all to bring freedom, peace and justice to our broken and fallen world.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.