Washington D.C., Apr 28, 2016 / 15:16 pm
It is perhaps not surprising that an American priest, Fr. John Courtney Murray, was one of the key contributors to Dignitatis Humanae, the most important document in modern times on the Catholic Church and religious freedom.
Together with then-Bishop Karol Wojtyla, another champion for religious freedom who would go on to become Pope John Paul II, Fr. Murray and the Second Vatican Council spelled out the Catholic Church's support of religious freedom as one of the most basic rights necessary for human dignity.
In a new video, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops argues that understanding and promoting the Church's teachings on this most basic freedom is now more important than ever, in light of recent threats to this right both at home and abroad.
"Religious freedom is one of the basic freedoms of the human person, because without religious freedom and freedom of conscience, all other freedoms are without foundation," said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the USCCB.