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Vatican diplomat decries hate speech, says it ‘cannot claim the protection of liberty’
September 18, 2026
» Continue to this story on Holy See Mission
CWN Editor's Note: A Vatican diplomat said that the inviolable dignity of every human person, created in the image of God, leads to the “moral imperative to reject every form of intolerance, discrimination, and hate speech that wounds the human family and undermines the conditions for peaceful coexistence.”
“Hate speech—whether directed against individuals or communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, or any other characteristic—contradicts the commandment to love one’s neighbor, poisons public discourse, inflames division, and too often prepares the ground for violence and persecution,” Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said yesterday at a UN conference (part 1, part 2).
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental right that must be protected. Yet this freedom carries corresponding responsibilities,” he added. “Speech that deliberately incites hatred or violence cannot claim the protection of liberty; rather, it erodes the very conditions in which genuine freedom can flourish.”
Archbishop El-Kassis’s statement yesterday was his first since his appointment as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. In 2018, one of his predecessors, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, also decried hate speech but warned that some governments were using regulations against “hate speech” and “hate crimes” as pretexts for “discriminatory or repressive measures against those, for example, who defend the dignity of every human life or uphold the dignity of marriage and the family.”
Likewise, in 2023, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, told the UN General Assembly that “the term ‘hate crime’ or ‘hate speech’ is now being used subjectively and manipulated to keep people from expressing their religious beliefs, equating the practice of religion to violence. This purposefully dishonest, politically motivated agenda, especially egregious in the West, must end.”
The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
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