The “challenge to defend
and promote the right to freedom of religion and freedom of worship
must be taken up once more in our days” where it is not upheld it or
where religious minorities are not protected, Pope Benedict XVI wrote in
a message for the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences released Wednesday.
The academy is currently holding its plenary assembly as part of a
five-day meeting currently underway in the Vatican to discuss the topic
of Universal Rights in a World of Diversity – The Case of Religious Freedom.
In his message, the pope, who devoted his message for
this year’s World Peace Day to the issue of religious freedom, wrote,
“As I have observed on various occasions, the roots of the West’s
Christian culture remain deep; it was that culture which gave life and
space to religious freedom and continues to nourish the constitutionally
guaranteed freedom of religion and freedom of worship that many peoples
enjoy today. Due in no small part to their systematic denial by
atheistic regimes of the twentieth century, these freedoms were
acknowledged and enshrined by the international community in the United
Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today these basic human
rights are again under threat from attitudes and ideologies which would
impede free religious expression.”
“Deeply inscribed in our human nature are a yearning
for truth and meaning and an openness to the transcendent; we are
prompted by our nature to pursue questions of the greatest importance to
our existence.
Many centuries ago, Tertullian coined the term libertas religionis (cf. Apologeticum, 24:6).
He emphasized that God must be worshipped freely, and that it is in the nature of religion not to admit coercion, "nec religionis est cogere religionem" (Ad Scapulam,
2:2). Since man enjoys the capacity for a free personal choice in
truth, and since God expects of man a free response to his call, the
right to religious freedom should be viewed as innate to the fundamental
dignity of every human person, in keeping with the innate openness of
the human heart to God. In fact, authentic freedom of religion will
permit the human person to attain fulfilment and will thus contribute to
the common good of society.”
“Of course, every state has a sovereign right to
promulgate its own legislation and will express different attitudes to
religion in law. So it is that there are some states which allow broad
religious freedom in our understanding of the term, while others
restrict it for a variety of reasons, including mistrust for religion
itself.”
Hence, “The Holy See continues to appeal for the
recognition of the fundamental human right to religious freedom on the
part of all states, and calls on them to respect, and if need be
protect, religious minorities who, though bound by a different faith
from the majority around them, aspire to live with their fellow citizens
peacefully and to participate fully in the civil and political life of
the nation, to the benefit of all.”