Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale354

II

Ad XVII Plenariam Sessionem Pontificiae Academiae de Scientiis Socialibus.

To Her Excellency Professor Mary Ann Glendon

President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

I am pleased to greet you and the members of the Pontifical Academy of

Social Sciences as you hold your seventeenth plenary session on the theme of

Universal Rights in a World of Diversity: the Case of Religious Freedom.

As I have observed on various occasions, the roots of the West's Christian

culture remain deep; it was that culture which gave life and space to religious

freedom and continues to nourish the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of

religion and freedom of worship that many peoples enjoy today. Due in no

small part to their systematic denial by atheistic regimes of the twentieth

century, these freedoms were acknowledged and enshrined by the interna-

tional community in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human

Rights. Today these basic human rights are again under threat from atti-

tudes and ideologies which would impede free religious expression. Conse-

quently, the challenge to defend and promote the right to freedom of religion

and freedom of worship must be taken up once more in our days. For this

reason, I am grateful to the Academy for its contribution to this debate.

Deeply inscribed in our human nature are a yearning for truth and mean-

ing and an openness to the transcendent; we are prompted by our nature to

pursue questions of the greatest importance to our existence. Many centuries

ago, Tertullian coined the term libertas religionis.1 He emphasized that God

must be worshipped freely, and that it is in the nature of religion not to admit

coercion, "nec religionis est cogere religionem".2 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 innate

to the fundamental dignity of every human person, in keeping with the

innate openness of the human heart to God. In fact, authentic freedom of

religion will permit the human person to attain fulfilment and will thus

contribute to the common good of society. Aware of the developments in

1 Cfr. Apologeticum, 24:6, 2 Ad Scapulam, 2:2.