At 12:10pm today, in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience a group of persons participating in an International Convention organized by the Department of Jurisprudence at the LUMSA University and the Saint John's University School of Law on the theme: Religious freedom according to international rights and the global conflict of values (Rome, June 20-21, 2014).
I welcome you on the occasion of your International Congress, dear brothers and sisters. I thank Professor Giuseppe Dalla Torre for his courteous words.
Recently, the debate about religious liberty has become very intense, interpellating both Governments and Religious Confessions. In this regard, the Catholic Church makes reference to the Declaration Dignitatis humanae, one of the most important documents of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.
In fact, every human being is a seeker of truth about his origin and his destiny. Questions and thoughts arise in his mind and in his heart which cannot be repressed or suffocated, in as much as they emerge from the depth and are innate to the person’s profound essence. They are religious questions and they are in need of religious liberty to manifest themselves fully. They seek to give light to the authentic meaning of existence, to the bond that connects it to the cosmos and to history, and intend to dispel the darkness that would surround human events if these questions were not posed and remained without answers. The Psalmist says: When I look at the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? (Psalm 8:5).
Reason recognizes in religious liberty a fundamental right of man that reflects his lofty dignity, that of being able to seek the truth and adhere to it, and it recognizes in it an indispensable condition to be able to display all his potential. Religious liberty is not only that of thought or private worship. It is freedom to live according to ethical principles consequent upon the truth found, be it privately or publicly. This is a great challenge in the globalized world, where weak thought -- which is like a sickness -- also lowers the general ethical level, and in the name of a false concept of tolerance ends up by persecuting those who defend the truth about man and the ethical consequences.
Therefore, the juridical, state and international regulations are called to recognize, guarantee and protect religious liberty, which is an intrinsically inherent right belonging to human nature, to its dignity of being free, and it is also an indicator of a healthy democracy and one of the principal sources of the legitimacy of the State.
Religious liberty, assimilated in Constitutions and laws and translated in coherent behavior, fosters the development of relations of mutual respect among the different Confessions and a healthy collaboration with the State and the political society, without confusion of roles and without antagonisms. Thus, instead of a global conflict of values, rendered possible -- from a nucleus of universally shared values -- is a global collaboration in view of the common good.
In the light of the acquisitions of reason, confirmed and perfected by revelation, and of the civil progress of peoples, it is incomprehensible and worrying that, up to today, discriminations and restrictions of rights remain by the sole fact of belonging to or professing publicly a determined faith. It is unacceptable that, in fact, real and proper persecutions subsist for reasons of religious membership! Also wars! This wounds reason, endangers peace and humiliates man’s dignity.
It is for me a reason for great sorrow to see that Christians in the world endure the greatest number of such discriminations. The persecution against Christians today is in fact stronger than it was in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs today than there were at that time. This is happening more than 1700 years after the Edict of Constantine, which granted freedom to Christians to profess their faith publicly.
I earnestly hope that your congress will illustrate with profundity and scientific rigor the reasons that oblige every juridical regulation to respect and defend religious liberty. I thank you for this contribution. I ask you to pray for me. I wish you the best from the bottom of my heart and ask God to bless you. Thank you.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the meeting with participants in the
International Convention on Religious Freedom
I welcome you on the occasion of your International Congress, dear brothers and sisters. I thank Professor Giuseppe Dalla Torre for his courteous words.
Recently, the debate about religious liberty has become very intense, interpellating both Governments and Religious Confessions. In this regard, the Catholic Church makes reference to the Declaration Dignitatis humanae, one of the most important documents of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.
In fact, every human being is a seeker of truth about his origin and his destiny. Questions and thoughts arise in his mind and in his heart which cannot be repressed or suffocated, in as much as they emerge from the depth and are innate to the person’s profound essence. They are religious questions and they are in need of religious liberty to manifest themselves fully. They seek to give light to the authentic meaning of existence, to the bond that connects it to the cosmos and to history, and intend to dispel the darkness that would surround human events if these questions were not posed and remained without answers. The Psalmist says: When I look at the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? (Psalm 8:5).
Reason recognizes in religious liberty a fundamental right of man that reflects his lofty dignity, that of being able to seek the truth and adhere to it, and it recognizes in it an indispensable condition to be able to display all his potential. Religious liberty is not only that of thought or private worship. It is freedom to live according to ethical principles consequent upon the truth found, be it privately or publicly. This is a great challenge in the globalized world, where weak thought -- which is like a sickness -- also lowers the general ethical level, and in the name of a false concept of tolerance ends up by persecuting those who defend the truth about man and the ethical consequences.
Therefore, the juridical, state and international regulations are called to recognize, guarantee and protect religious liberty, which is an intrinsically inherent right belonging to human nature, to its dignity of being free, and it is also an indicator of a healthy democracy and one of the principal sources of the legitimacy of the State.
Religious liberty, assimilated in Constitutions and laws and translated in coherent behavior, fosters the development of relations of mutual respect among the different Confessions and a healthy collaboration with the State and the political society, without confusion of roles and without antagonisms. Thus, instead of a global conflict of values, rendered possible -- from a nucleus of universally shared values -- is a global collaboration in view of the common good.
In the light of the acquisitions of reason, confirmed and perfected by revelation, and of the civil progress of peoples, it is incomprehensible and worrying that, up to today, discriminations and restrictions of rights remain by the sole fact of belonging to or professing publicly a determined faith. It is unacceptable that, in fact, real and proper persecutions subsist for reasons of religious membership! Also wars! This wounds reason, endangers peace and humiliates man’s dignity.
It is for me a reason for great sorrow to see that Christians in the world endure the greatest number of such discriminations. The persecution against Christians today is in fact stronger than it was in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs today than there were at that time. This is happening more than 1700 years after the Edict of Constantine, which granted freedom to Christians to profess their faith publicly.
I earnestly hope that your congress will illustrate with profundity and scientific rigor the reasons that oblige every juridical regulation to respect and defend religious liberty. I thank you for this contribution. I ask you to pray for me. I wish you the best from the bottom of my heart and ask God to bless you. Thank you.
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