So when Dignitatis Humanæ states:
- This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.
Who is to enforce “within due limits” when everyone, “individuals or of social groups and of any human power”, has been suppressed by the very same declaration to enforce anything on the individual? When a person goes beyond this limit, who is to stop him or her? Also, by the very fact alone we have laws against murder is a violation to this declaration since there are religions that require human sacrifice in order to operate. Do we abolish that law since it impedes people from practicing their religious freedom? Another fact is that, who is to determine these limits? In order to establish these limits and enforce them would contradict your idea of limited State authority. But since the only religion that truly exists is the Catholic Faith, which alone enjoys the definition and defense of the word “religion”, all other false religions are nothing more then matters of men, since they are creations of them or of devils, which the State has full authority over to eliminate or suppress.
Sorry, I misrepresented the Church’s teaching on that point: it
is within the competence of political prudence to determine the due or just limits of the civil right of freedom of religion and its public expression, and this is determined by reference to the common good, like all law is.
**The social duty of religion and the right to religious freedom **
2104 "All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it."26 This duty derives from "the very dignity of the human person."27 It does not contradict a “sincere respect” for **different religions which frequently “reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men,” **(Cf. John 1:8-9, below) 28 nor the requirement of charity, which urges Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith."29
2105 The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is "the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ."30 By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works toward enabling them "to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which [they] live."31 The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church.32 Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the Church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies.33
2106 "Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due limits."34 This right is based on the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it "continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth and adhering to it."35
**2108 **The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to error,37 but rather a natural right of the human person to civil liberty, i.e., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities. This natural right ought to be acknowledged in the juridical order of society in such a way that it constitutes a civil right.38
2109 The right to religious liberty can of itself be neither unlimited nor limited only by a “public order” conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner.39
The “due limits” which are inherent in it must be determined for each social situation by political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority in accordance with "legal principles which are in conformity with the objective moral order."40
26 DH 1 § 2.
27 DH 2 § 1.
28 NA 2 § 2.
29 DH 14 § 4.
30 DH 1 § 3.
31 AA 13 § 1.
32 Cf. DH 1.
33 Cf. AA 13; Leo XIII, Immortale Dei 3,17; Pius XI, Quas primas 8,20.
34 DH 2 § 1.
35 DH 2 § 2.
36 DH 6 § 3.
37 Cf. Leo XIII, Libertas praestantissimum 18; Pius XII AAS 1953,799.
38 Cf. DH 2.
39 Cf. Pius VI, Quod aliquantum (1791) 10; Pius IX, Quanta cura 3.
40 DH 7 § 3.
John 1:3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. . . . He
i.e. John the Baptist] was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light. That was the true light,
which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.
It is the Church’s Magisterium that both issues and ultimately interprets sacred documents.
