50 Years Ago Today: The Declaration on Religious Freedom

On Dec. 7, 1965, Pope Paul VI promulgated the Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis humanae.  The Declaration opens with this:

A sense of the dignity of the human person has been impressing itself more and more deeply on the consciousness of contemporary man,(1) and the demand is increasingly made that men should act on their own judgment, enjoying and making use of a responsible freedom, not driven by coercion but motivated by a sense of duty. The demand is likewise made that constitutional limits should be set to the powers of government, in order that there may be no encroachment on the rightful freedom of the person and of associations. . . .

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