Religious liberty
May anyone be made to believe, or stopped from believing?
"All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it." DH 1 # 2. This duty derives from "the very dignity of the human person." DH 2 # 1. It does not contradict a "sincere respect" for different religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men," NA 2 # 2. nor the requirement of charity, which urges Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith." DH 14 # 4.
The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is "the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ." DH 1 # 3. By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works toward enabling them "to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which [they] live." AA 13 # 1. The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church. Cf. DH 1. Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the Church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies. Cf. AA 13; Leo XIII, Immortale Dei 3, 17; Pius XI, Quas primas 8, 20.
"Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due limits." DH 2 # 1. This right is based on the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it "continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it." DH 2 # 2.
"If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional organization of a state, the right of all citizens and religious communities to religious freedom must be recognized and respected as well." DH 6 # 3.
The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to error, Cf. Leo XIII, Libertas praestantissimum 18; Pius XII AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See). but rather a natural right of the human person to civil liberty, i.e., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities. This natural right ought to be acknowledged in the juridical order of society in such a way that it constitutes a civil right. Cf. DH 2.
The right to religious liberty can of itself be neither unlimited nor limited only by a "public order" conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner. Cf. Pius VI, Quod aliquantum (1791) 10; Pius IX, Quanta cura 3. The "due limits" which are inherent in it must be determined for each social situation by political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority in accordance with "legal principles which are in conformity with the objective moral order." DH 7 # 3.
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”. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 1: AAS — 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. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 2: AAS — 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. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 3: AAS — 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. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2108.
Freedom of conscience and religion “concerns man both individually and socially”. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2105. The right to religious freedom must be recognized in the juridical order and sanctioned as a civil right; Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 2: AAS — 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, 2108. nonetheless, it is not of itself an unlimited right. The just limits of the exercise of religious freedom must be determined in each social situation with political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority through legal norms consistent with the objective moral order. Such norms are required by “the need for the effective safeguarding of the rights of all citizens and for the peaceful settlement of conflicts of rights, also by the need for an adequate care of genuine public peace, which comes about when men live together in good order and in true justice, and finally by the need for a proper guardianship of public morality”. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 7: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 935; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2109.
Because of its historical and cultural ties to a nation, a religious community might be given special recognition on the part of the State. Such recognition must in no way create discrimination within the civil or social order for other religious groups. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 6: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 933-934; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2107. The vision of the relations between States and religious organizations promoted by the Second Vatican Council corresponds to the requirements of a State ruled by law and to the norms of international law. Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 5: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 91 (1999) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1999), 380-381. The Church is well aware that this vision is not shared by all; the right to religious freedom, unfortunately, “is being violated by many States, even to the point that imparting catechesis, having it imparted, and receiving it become punishable offences”. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae, 14: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 71 (1979) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1979), 1289.