Protecting the various dimensions and manifestations of human freedom, Archbishop Migliore remarked, guarantees the building of the common good, overcoming the threats to the dignity of every person, and recognizes that all humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
However, he lamented the "negation of rights" that "violate the order of creation, contradict the sacred character of life, deprive the human person, the family, communities of their natural identity."
"Human rights express the unity of the human creature, of his aspiration at satisfying his essential needs while attaining at the same time freedom, human relations and spiritual values," he continued.
He especially noted that rights are an instrument through which a person "manifests his relationship with the truth, protects his conscience, his dimension of faith and his most profound convictions."
The Universal Declaration's content which addresses religious liberty, the archbishop said, provides a simultaneously individual and communitarian approach and "does not set the dimension of the citizen against that of the believer, recognizing instead the full freedom of the relationship between the person and his Creator."
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
No national or international law can cancel or limit this relationship, Archbishop Migliore insisted. "The free relationship between the person and his Creator, today as then, should not be limited to the exercise of religious belief, but open to the public expression of religious worship through the channels of formation, instruction and full participation in all decision making within a given country."
He then concluded by emphasizing how potent human rights had become in international thought.
"Human rights consist no longer in mere proclamations or legislative and institutional modifications," and are not a "rhetorical remembrance," but are "the result of the responsible deeds of everyone."