Justice Alito warns of global threat to religious liberty at first event hosted by Burch

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. warned that religious liberty is under serious threat worldwide during a Sept. 20 event in Rome, the first major initiative hosted by Brian Burch, the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

According to a report from The New York Times, Alito said that while Americans and Europeans face mounting challenges to religious expression, the situation is far graver in places like Nigeria, China, and Iraq.

“To the extent religious freedom is under pressure in the United States and Europe, it pales in significance compared to what is happening in countries like Nigeria, China and Iraq,” said Alito, according to the New York Times report. “It is a great matter of concern and something that I think all Christians should be concerned about and should try to find ways of combating this problem.”

The conversation, held at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in central Rome as part of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee celebrations, was cosponsored by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, the Vatican, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

According to the report, Alito, a practicing Catholic, pointed to the murder of Christians in Nigeria, the repression of Uyghur Muslims in China, and the persecution of Muslim minorities in Iraq under ISIS. 

“I think reason is a hallmark of the Catholic intellectual tradition,” he said, arguing that his faith is “entirely compatible” with his role as a secular judge in a country that separates church and state. He stressed that justices of the Supreme Court “do not have divine authority and I hope we never stray into thinking that we do.”

Saturday’s gathering marked the debut of Ambassador Burch, who recently presented his credentials to Pope Leo XIV. During that meeting, the Pope welcomed Burch, his wife, and their nine children, calling the encounter “extraordinarily friendly, like talking to a friend back home in Chicago,” according to the embassy.