Religious Liberty?

[Ranulfus]

When I went to confession(not any SSPX or traditionalist priest),
I told them I have offered things to to Pagan Gods of the Taoist Temple.

The priest said “Worshipping other “Gods” is like saying the most holy Trinity isn’t the real God.”

So is Religious Liberty wrong? I mean the church has taught about outside the Church there is no salvation.
But when Vatican II came, they said that, there can be outside salvation…

BUT IN EXTREME CASES, But still through the One True Church of Christ.

 

[Brendan_64]

Clearly offering things to false gods is wrong. There is only one God and we do not worship or recognise the existence of any other. Your priest is right.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Religious liberty is a legal issue–the idea that the government can’t force you to worship in any particular religion. The flip side, is they can’t forbid worship in any particular religion either.

Whether or not you should have offered sacrifices in the Tao temple is a matter of your conscience.
Our Judeo-Christian belief is that you should not have.

ray:t2:

 

[MT1926]

I think you need to define what you mean by Religious Liberty?

The First Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights states the following: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

When I think of that term I see that as something being directly applied to the government.

It seems you are saying the Catholic Church doesn’t believe in religious liberty because they say it is wrong to worship other God’s?

From my point of view our Religious liberty is a liberty granted to us by God. God gave us this liberty but also gave us a set of commandments by which this liberty is confined withing.

The first being I am the LORD your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.

So by worshiping pagan gods you broke the first commandment, thus the religious liberty option is no longer on the table.

Let’s take another example, suppose I belong to a religion that believes in sacrificing my first born to the gods. Is this OK because of my religious liberty or is this not OK because it breaks the 5th commandment (though shalt not kill)?

Hope this helps,

God Bless

 

[1Lord1Faith]

So is Religious Liberty wrong?

No it’s not wrong. It’s very right. It is in keeping with the free will that God gives to us.

Exactly what someone does with their religious liberty is where the question lies.

 

[Genesis315]

As others have said, these are two different issues. The fact that the government only has only a limited right to restrict false religious activity (ie man has a limited right to be free from civil coercion in religious matters) does not mean people have a moral right to commits acts of idolatry. The Catechism section on the 1st Commandment deals with both issues:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c1a1.htm

Some excerpts:
2105 The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially…

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

2112 The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of “idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.” These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them."42 God, however, is the "living God"43 who gives life and intervenes in history.

2113 Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon."44 Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast"45 refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.46

 

[Minnesota]

Man has a duty to worship Christ in the Catholic faith. This, however, could really only be enforced in Catholic countries - many of which have fallen astray.

In a country like America or the UK, whose main history involved a well-known and deeply ingrained Protestant patrimony, religious liberty would mean that Catholics are allowed to worship in public and not be accosted by the Protestant majority.