1965-12-07 · Vatican City (Second Vatican Council)

Dignitatis Humanae: Declaration on Religious Freedom

In 1965, the Second Vatican Council issued Dignitatis Humanae, declaring that every person has a natural right to religious freedom — a position that reversed centuries of Catholic teaching that the ideal state would promote Catholicism and suppress error.

For most of its history, the Catholic Church had taught that error has no rights. In a properly ordered society, the state would support the Catholic Church and could legitimately restrict false religions. This position was stated plainly in papal encyclicals throughout the nineteenth century, particularly by Gregory XVI and Pius IX. It made political sense when Catholic monarchies ruled much of Europe. It made less sense in the modern world. The American Jesuit John Courtney Murray had been arguing for decades that religious freedom was not just a pragmatic concession but a genuine moral principle, rooted in the dignity of the human person. His superiors silenced him in the 1950s. Then, when the Second Vatican Council opened, he was brought to Rome as a peritus — an expert adviser — and his ideas formed the backbone of Dignitatis Humanae. The declaration was the most bitterly debated document of the entire council. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and other traditionalists argued it contradicted previous papal teaching. Supporters countered that it developed doctrine legitimately by returning to a deeper principle: that faith must be free to be real. The final text declared that the human person has a right to religious freedom, that no one should be coerced in matters of belief, and that this right is grounded in the dignity of the human person as known through both reason and revelation. It did not say all religions are equally true. It said that the state has no competence to determine religious truth and must respect the conscience of its citizens. The vote was 2,308 to 70 in favor. The document reshaped the Church's relationship with the modern world, ended any Catholic argument for state-enforced religion, and gave the Church moral standing to defend persecuted believers of all faiths under communist and other repressive regimes.

Why it matters

Established religious freedom as a fundamental right rooted in human dignity, reversing centuries of Catholic teaching on Church-state relations and giving the Church moral authority to defend religious liberty worldwide.