CSDC 421

The Second Vatican Council committed the Catholic Church to the promotion of religious freedom. The Declaration Dignitatis Humanae explains in its subtitle that it intends to proclaim “the right of the person and of communities to social and civil freedom in religious matters”. In order that this freedom, willed by God and inscribed in human nature, may be exercised, no obstacle should be placed in its way, since “the truth cannot be imposed except by virtue of its own truth”.⁸⁵⁷ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 1: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 929. The dignity of the person and the very nature of the quest for God require that all men and women should be free from every constraint in the area of religion.⁸⁵⁸ Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 2: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 930-931; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2106. Society and the State must not force a person to act against his conscience or prevent him from acting in conformity with it.⁸⁵⁹ Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 3: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 931-932. Religious freedom is not a moral licence to adhere to error, nor as an implicit right to error.⁸⁶⁰ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2108.