Religious Freedom

Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba, South Sudan, called for restraint and compassion, as the alleged killings of South Sudanese refugees in the war-torn Sudan sparked retaliatory attacks across the country.

Venezuela’s bishops called for the country’s electoral decision to be respected on the eve of the Jan. 10 inauguration of President Nicolás Maduro, whose victory in the July 28 election is disputed by the opposition and not recognized by the United States.

Christians and Indigenous minorities protested publicly against the beating of a minority woman and the burning of her house in Gobindganj, in the northern Gaibandha district of Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

Father Henrykh Akalatovich, pastor of the Catholic parish in Valožyn, was sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony in Belarus Dec. 30 in a move that highlights the growing persecution of Catholics in the Russia-aligned country.