Glendon: West doesn't hold patent on religious freedom
Religious freedom is still threatened and minorities are not protected, said Pope
Benedict XVI Wednesday in his address to participants at the plenary assembly of the
Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The plenary chose the topic "Universal Rights
in a World of Diversity: the Case of Religious Freedom" for discussions during
their five day meeting here at the Vatican.
In his message Pope Benedict stressed
that only " freedom of religion will permit the human person to attain fulfilment
and will thus contribute to the common good of society ". He noted that "the challenge"
to defend and promote the right to freedom of religion needs to be taken on today
because there are still countries that do not protect religious minorities.
Learned
Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Mary Ann Glendon is Academy President.
At a press conference in the Vatican Wednesday, presenting the out come of the Plenary,
she told Lydia O’Kane that “in the West, we always when we think about freedom we
always think we have the patent on it and we tend to get very satisfied with ourselves.
But as Pope Benedict points out we fail to recognise the subtle and sophisticated
ways in which religious freedom is undermined in our own cultures.”. Listen to
Full interview:
Below the
full text of Pope Benedict XVI’s address:
To Her Excellency Professor
Mary Ann Glendon President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
I
am pleased to greet you and the members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
as you hold your seventeenth plenary session on the theme of Universal Rights in a
World of Diversity: the Case of Religious Freedom. 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. Consequently, 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. For this reason, I am grateful to the Academy for its contribution to this
debate. 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. Aware of the
developments in culture and society, the Second Vatican Council proposed a renewed
anthropological foundation to religious freedom. The Council Fathers stated that all
people are “impelled by nature and also bound by our moral obligation to seek the
truth, especially religious truth” (Dignitatis Humanae, 2). The truth sets us free
(cf. Jn 8:32), and it is this same truth that must be sought and assumed freely.
The Council was careful to clarify that this freedom is a right which each person
enjoys naturally and which therefore ought also to be protected and fostered by civil
law. 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. 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. Finally, let me express my sincere hope that your expertise in the fields
of law, political science, sociology and economics will converge in these days to
bring about fresh insights on this important question and thus bear much fruit now
and into the future. During this holy season, I invoke upon you an abundance of Easter
joy and peace, and I willingly impart to you, to Bishop Sánchez Sorondo and to all
the members of the Academy my Apostolic Blessing.