Catholic Social Doctrine: Freedom of Religion and Conscience

Man has a natural inclination, an intellectual and felt need, to seek the truth and to worship God

In dealing with the issue of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, we are not yet dealing with the God of revelation, the Deus revelatus.  We are not yet dealing with the Deus quaerens hominem, the God seeking man of the Old Testament, much less the Deus quaerens in homine hominem, as St. Augustine so beautifully put it in one of his sermons, the God seeking man in man of the New Testament.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - In exploring the issue of religious freedom, we may conveniently divide the issue into two.  The first: the issue of religious freedom as a fundamental human right.  The second: the relationship between that fundamental human freedom and the Catholic Church.  In this article we shall deal with the first issue.  In our next article on this topic, we shall deal with the second.

For the first matter, we must turn to human nature which, indeed, is the source and foundation of the natural moral law, and hence also the source of human right.  Man has a natural inclination, an intellectual and felt need, to seek the truth and to worship God.  He has this inclination to seek the truth and to worship God irrespective of, one might say "before" coming upon, God's own revelation of Himself as Truth, and God's revelation to man as to the means of worship.

In short, there is in man a religious impulse. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it: "The desire for God is written in the human heart," and this desire is satisfied only with the God that reason only outlines in the most vague way.  This religious impulse, of course, is what explains the world's religions, since these represent cultural expressions of man-seeking-God, of homo quaerens Deum.  We find it so beautifully displayed--albeit with admixture of error--in, for example, the writings of Plato, e.g., his Timaeus, in Cicero's De natura deorum, and in some of the sacred and philosophical texts of Hinduism such as the Katha Upanishad VI.12 or the Shvetashvatara Upanishad III.7, 9. 

In dealing with the issue of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, we are not yet dealing with the God of revelation, the Deus revelatus.  We are not yet dealing with the Deus quaerens hominem, the God seeking man of the Old Testament, much less the Deus quaerens in homine hominem, as St. Augustine so beautifully put it in one of his sermons, the God seeking man in man of the New Testament.

This religious impulse or natural inclination is of the natural law puts a duty upon man.  And the natural law is therefore the source of any right related to the fulfillment of that duty, specifically, the right to religious freedom.  Man, alone and with others of his kind, must be free to exercise this religious impulse, to search for the truth and for God in freedom, to find that balm of Gilead for his restless heart.  It is this natural inclination that is ordered to truth and to God that the Church seeks to protect when she proclaimed in the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae the right of the person and of communities to social and civil freedom in religious matters.

As the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church elaborates: "In order that this freedom, willed by God and inscribed in human nature, may be exercised, no obstacle should be placed in its way, since "the truth cannot be imposed except by virtue of its own truth."  The dignity of the person and the very nature of the quest for God require that all men and women should be free from every constraint in the area of religion. Society and the State must not force a person to act against his conscience or prevent him from acting in conformity with it."

"Freedom of conscience and religion," the Compendium continues, "'concerns man both individually and socially.'  The right to religious freedom must be recognized in the judicial order and sanctioned as a civil right . . . . ."  (Compendium, No. 421)

Inextricably intertwined with religious freedom is the freedom of conscience.  Conscience, though not infallible, is nothing less than man's internal window to God, a "window through which one can see outward to that common truth which founds and sustains us all."  It is the aperture of the soul wherein man finds an "openness to the ground of his being, the power of perception for what is highest and most essential."  It is the soul's route by which "the way to the redemptive road to truth," into "a 'co-knowing' with the truth" that is God, is gained. 

This is the conscience which Cardinal Ratzinger described in his book On Conscience as "an inner ontological tendency within man, who is created in the likeness of God, toward the divine." 

Conscience's link to God is well stated by the puritan Thomas Brookes, who called conscience "God's deputy, God's spy, God's notary, God's viceroy."

The right to religious freedom and freedom of conscience is therefore one ordered to truth and to God.  It is for this reason, that the Church distinguishes between "religious freedom" and "freedom of conscience," and what might be called "religious license" or moral libertinism.

"Religious freedom is not a moral license to adhere to error," nor should it be viewed as "an implicit right to error." (Compendium, No. 421) (citing CCC 2108)

Conscience is ordered to the truth and to good, ultimately God who is the source of both truth and good.

Properly understood, therefore, freedom of conscience and of religion "is not of itself an unlimited right." (Compendium, No. 422)

What, then, are the just limits of this freedom?

"The just limits of the exercise of religious freedom must be determined in each social situation with political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority through legal norms consistent with the objective moral order." (Compendium, No. 422)

The "objective moral order" is a reference to the natural law.  Therefore, there is no religious freedom or freedom of conscience that would justify a right to breach the natural moral law.  Consequently, the just limits of religious freedom or freedom of conscience may include prohibitions of practices against, or offensive to, the natural moral law. 

For example, it would not be a violation of religious freedom or freedom of conscience to prohibit polygamy or family intermarriage, human or animal sacrifice, or religions that practiced offensive sexual religious rituals or which advocated assassination, violence, or disobedience to positive laws that were in accord with natural law.  It is not a violation of conscience to prohibit homosexual "marriage," or to have laws against abortion.

The reason behind imposing just limits on freedom of religion and of conscience relates to the public order and the common good: "Such norms are required by 'the need for the effective safeguarding of the rights of all citizens and for the peaceful settlement of conflicts of rights, also by the need for an adequate care of genuine public peace, which comes about when men live together in good order and in true justice, and finally by the need for a proper guardianship of public morality.'"  (Compendium, No. 422)

Since the natural moral law binds all men regardless of religious confession, and since religious freedom and freedom of conscience find their source in the natural moral law itself, it is reasonable to impose upon all men limits based upon that natural moral law.  In other words, religious freedom and freedom of conscience (which are founded on the natural moral law) do not provide freedom or license for beliefs or acts that are contrary to that very same natural moral law.

Finally, the Church recognizes the intrinsic historical and cultural ties that a religious tradition may have with a people, and recognizes that the common good might allow for "special recognition" of that reality.  These would be justified because of those particular religions' ties to those countries.  But even so, religious freedom and freedom of conscience survive such "special recognition." 

Such norms are required by "the need for the effective safeguarding of the rights of all citizens and for the peaceful settlement of conflicts of rights, also by the need for an adequate care of genuine public peace, which comes about when men live together in good order and in true justice, and finally by the need for a proper guardianship of public morality."  (Compendium, No. 423)

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Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas.  He is married with three children.  He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum.  You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.

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