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Cuts are coming to the U.S. State Department.
The Trump administration confirmed last week that it will downsize and reorganize the federal agency in hopes of reducing what it describes as inefficiency and bloat.
The announcement sparked concern among some religious freedom experts, who feared the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom was on the chopping block.
The office, which is led by the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, tracks faith-related violence around the world and recommends sanctions on countries that discourage religious diversity or otherwise harm people of faith.
The office has helped the U.S. establish a reputation as the world’s foremost religious freedom champion, but that doesn’t mean it enjoys universal support.
When I profiled then-U.S. ambassador-at-large Sam Brownback in 2019, several sources said they were frustrated with how the office functioned and how little its research seemed to matter in the grand scheme of the State Department.
“People who work as our foreign service officers around the world are as intelligent a group of people as you’ll find in any U.S. government agency,” one former ambassador told me. “But it is surprising how often there is a comparative lack of understanding of the important role that religion and religious practices play in the lives of people around the world.”
In a statement on upcoming changes, a spokesperson for the State Department said the reorganization will help the Office of International Religious Freedom have a bigger voice in the government’s human rights work.
The office is expected to be part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor moving forward.
“This will help ensure that the promotion of religious freedom and the effort to counter antisemitism remain at the center of our human rights diplomacy, not separate,” a State Department spokesperson told the National Catholic Register.
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Term of the week: Dyngus Day
Dyngus Day is a Polish holiday that marks the end of Lent, the somber religious season that stretches from Ash Wednesday to Easter.
It developed out of pagan cleansing rituals that marked the start of spring, as well as Catholic traditions tied to Easter, according to The Washington Post.
On Dyngus Day in Poland, revelers go to Easter Monday Mass — and then start chasing one another with water and tree branches.
“They came to my house once, and my dad opened the door, and they literally flooded the house,” said Agnieszka Zagórska, who grew up in Poland, to The Washington Post. “When I grew up, it was a nightmare. Going to church, it was crazy.”
Polish-Americans in Buffalo, New York, have embraced Dyngus Day in recent years.
The city hosts a Dyngus Day parade, which features water gun fights and people dressed as pierogis and other famous Polish treats.
“Dyngus Day is something to laugh about — its participants don’t take themselves too seriously while swatting pussy willows or shooting Super Soakers — but it is steeped in Polish traditions," per The Washington Post.
What I’m reading...
Although I followed Pope Francis’ papacy pretty closely, I know next to nothing about the cardinals in line to be the next pope. I enjoyed digging into Religion News Service’s guide to the “likely contenders,” which separates notable candidates into conservative, moderate and progressive camps.
Americans are going through something of a friendship crisis right now, but it likely has more to do with the quality of their friendships than the quantity, according to The Atlantic. Writer Faith Hill argues that the crisis will be solved when people put more time into the relationships they already have, rather than going to an endless series of new events. “Instead of seeking more and more people, hoping for a spark, maybe you’re better off working on the friendships that you already have—you know, the ones you’re neglecting while playing badminton with strangers," she says.
Odds and ends
Did my Q&A with one of this season’s teams convince anyone to start watching “The Amazing Race”? Last week’s episode put religion in the spotlight again with a cross-finding mission and Bible translation challenge in Sofia, Bulgaria.