Pope says religious freedom must be protected

(April 04, 2011) “The challenge to defend and promote the right to freedom of religion and of worship must be taken up once more in our days, as basic human rights are again under threat from attitudes and ideologies which impede free religious expression”. Pope Benedict XVI said this in a message to the 17^th plenary assembly of Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The theme of the five-day assembly which concluded on Tuesday is “Universal Rights in a world of diversity: the case of religious freedom”. The Papal message addressed to the Academy’s President - Professor Mary Ann Glendon, said the profound roots of the West’s Christian culture gave life and space to the freedom of religion and worship. These freedoms were acknowledged and enshrined by the international community in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Pope noted that every State has a sovereign right to promulgate its own legislation and will express different attitudes to religion in law, with some States allowing broad religious freedom, and others restricting it for a variety of reasons. The Holy See, stressed the Pope’s message, continues to “appeal for the recognition of the fundamental human right to religious freedom on the part of all States. It calls on them to respect, and if need be, to protect religious minorities.
The Pope said “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 a basic fundamental right of every human person”.