The 2011 World Day of Peace Message—Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace

 

This morning the Holy See released Pope Benedict’s 2011 World Day of Peace Message which develops the theme of “Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace.” The full text in English is available here. This text should be of great interest to contributors to and to readers of the Mirror of Justice. As will become obvious upon reading the text, anyone can see that the issue of religious freedom, often discussed and debated within the context of this web site, is not an issue restricted to an American audience. The matter is of universal concern.

The message begins with a reminder of the cost of religious freedom in the context of the lethal attack on October 31 at the Syro-Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad. To underscore the significance of this brutality and how it defies religious liberty, the Holy Father offered these words: “It is painful to think that in some areas of the world it is impossible to profess one’s religion freely except at the risk of life and personal liberty.” He reminds all that religious freedom is a constitutive expression of something that is unique about the human person, i.e., the desire to direct one’s self to God.

Other important points made by the Holy Father include these:

1. Related to his opening remark is the point that the right to religious freedom is rooted in the dignity of the human person—a theme that has long been a part of Catholic social doctrine.

2. Religious freedom provides the foundation for that moral freedom which enables the person to exercise rights wisely while at the same time acknowledging corresponding responsibilities to others.

3. The family is the first “school” where the importance of religious freedom through religious education first takes place.

4. Religious freedom and the responsibilities that attend to it provide for the formation of the good citizen who exercises citizenship that advances a sound political and juridical culture.

5. Religious freedom, as Pope Paul VI reminded the leaders of the world’s governments at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, must retain its vital public dimension. The freedom is meaningless if it cannot be exercised in community and in public.

6. Religious freedom can never be a masquerade for advancing political agendas that undermine the foundation of just civil societies. Authentic religious freedom is a close relative of the search for the transcendent and objective moral order, which is Truth (God’s) itself.

7. Genuine expressions of justice and civility embrace authentic religious freedom.

8. Dialogue between religious and civil societies is beneficial and is an expression of the two citizenships which many people exercise.

9. Authentic religious freedom promotes moral truth in national and international political institutions thereby enhancing understanding and dispelling those narrow prejudices that foster hostility and contradict the durability of a just and lasting peace.

As our predecessor in faith Saint Augustine said, tolle lege, take up and read!

 

RJA sj