|
The declaration of this Vatican Council on the right of man to
religious freedom has its foundation in the dignity of the person,
whose exigencies have come to be are fully known to human reason through
centuries of experience. What is more, this doctrine of freedom has
roots in divine revelation, and for this reason Christians are bound
to respect it all the more conscientiously. Revelation does not indeed
affirm in so many words the right of man to immunity from external
coercion in matters religious. It does, however, disclose the
dignity of the human person in its full dimensions. It gives evidence
of the respect which Christ showed toward the freedom with which man is
to fulfill his duty of belief in the word of God and it gives us
lessons in the spirit which disciples of such a Master ought to adopt
and continually follow. Thus further light is cast upon the general
principles upon which the doctrine of this declaration on religious
freedom is based. In particular, religious freedom in society is
entirely consonant with the freedom of the act of Christian faith.
|
|