Religious freedom is ‘barometer’ of a society’s freedom, says Vatican’s foreign minister

June 09, 2015

In a June 8 address delivered in Strasbourg, France, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States likened religious freedom to a “barometer which indicates accurately the true level of freedom within a society.”

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher made his remarks at a seminar organized by the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the Council of Europe.

“Despotic systems in every age have always aimed to gain strict control over churches and, as there are no authoritarian regimes which espouse authentic religious freedom, so too all restrictions of religious freedom lead to a weakening of the democratic fiber of society,” he said.

“For civil authorities, and in particular for the state, the principle of religious freedom represents an inherent limit to the exercising of the state’s power, a power which is necessary but which is often, by and large, invasive,” he added.

 

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Further information:

• Intervento del Segretario per i Rapporti con gli Stati al Seminario di alto livello organizzato dalla Missione Permanente della Santa Sede presso il Consiglio d’Europa (Strasburgo, 8 giugno 2015) (Holy See Press Office)
• High-level seminar on religious dimension of intercultural dialogue (Council of Europe)