As an American living abroad, I believed religious persecution in Italy was a relic of the past, confined to ancient Roman history or the violence of the early Protestant Reformation. Now, several hundred years later, the treatment of one small evangelical church in the heart of Rome suggests otherwise and evokes the very real and present threat of religious persecution worldwide.
It’s the church’s story and the alarming plight of religious minorities that highlight the need for the next administration to advocate religious freedom across the globe.
Breccia di Roma’s 2015 acquisition of an old storefront just minutes away from the Colosseum marked the first time in nearly 100 years that an evangelical church had purchased property in the historic city center. Represented by ADF International, Breccia last week made public its appeal to Europe’s top human rights court after Italy’s Supreme Court in May declared Breccia’s building not a church in the eyes of the national tax agency.
The reason? The church’s space lacks the “intrinsic characteristics or features of a religious building,” Breccia’s pastor Leonardo De Chirico shared in an interview. Despite two lower court rulings in Breccia’s favor, the Supreme Court in May determined the interior was simply not religious enough in appearance to satisfy Italian tax authorities.
Produced as examples of acceptable religious spaces were photos of Europe’s largest mosque, Rome’s main Jewish synagogue, and a large Baroque cathedral, all of which defy a Protestant tradition of simplicity in worship. The 30-member church body now faces 50,000 euros in back taxes and penalties.
Breccia’s Supreme Court ruling is troubling not just for evangelical churches but also for other faith groups scattered across Italy. Nearly three-quarters of Italy’s population claim Catholicism as their religion, while 4.1% identify as non-Catholic Christians. At nearly 5%, Muslims comprise the second largest religious group after Christians. Many Muslims have already found themselves the target of unfair government policies.
Rulings such as Breccia’s open the door to legal harassment of minority faith groups in Italy. Christians and Muslims alike should enjoy the Italian Constitution’s guarantee to “freely profess their beliefs in any form.”
Their story hits close to home as an American evangelical Christian now living in Italy. It also accompanies a global rise in religious persecution of those who share my faith and the relative failure of the Biden-Harris White House to confront it. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rightly identified religious freedom as a universal human right. His insistence that religious freedom is indistinguishable from other human rights, however, led to the replacement of religious freedom as a hallmark of foreign policy with the advancement of LGBT rights.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, last year proved the bloodiest on record for Christians there, with more than 8,000 killed by jihadists for their faith. Where the Trump administration in 2020 designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” for its notorious violations of religious freedom, Blinken de-emphasized the plight of Christians with his removal of Nigeria from the State Department’s religious violence list.
The Biden administration’s spotty record on religious freedom advocacy spurred criticism from the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. In a congressional hearing last year, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) linked combating violations of religious freedom to national security. “The worst violators of religious freedom globally are often the biggest threats to our nation,” Smith said, calling out the State Department for its failure to hold guilty parties accountable.
“Our Founders cared a lot about religion,” former President Bill Clinton remarked at the signing ceremony of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “They knew that religion helps to give our people the character without which a democracy cannot survive.” It’s our duty to advocate religious freedom not just at home but also abroad that makes the United States remarkable and creates a safer world for religious minorities to worship freely.
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From Rome to Nigeria, all people are entitled to “manifest [their] religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance,” according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Breccia, or “breach” in English, defines the work of pastor De Chirico and co-pastor Clay Kannard in their ministry in Rome. Now, they stand in the gap for religious freedom for the whole of Italy’s religious minorities. Italy must listen, Europe should take note, and the next administration will choose whether to defend or compromise religious freedom for all.
Alyssa Blakemore is a writer living in Northern Italy. She holds a master’s degree in global studies and international relations and previously worked as a refugee resettlement volunteer in the U.K.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
