Chris Smith: “Mr. Chairman, in 1984, on one of several human rights trips to Romania, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), the…”

“Mr. Chairman, in 1984, on one of several human rights trips to Romania, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall), and myself pushed for the release of persecuted Christians and, in particular, Father Calccu. For over a decade, during both the Carter and the Reagan administrations, Father Calccu endured unspeakable tortured beatings, solitary confinement in coffins that were vertical. Yet, the world, the State Department, everybody said, Ceausescu, the dictator in Romania was somehow a good guy, we need to work with him. The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) said it well. Hate is not the opposite of love; indifference is. This bill ends our indifference, our bipartisan indifference towards religious persecution. Religious persecution has been and it is today the orphan of human rights. We need to stand strong. This is against religious persecution, things like torture. I urge support for this bill, hopefully in a very bipartisan way.”