Error has no rights
"Error has no rights" (Template:Lang-la[1][2]) is the Catholic principle that non-Roman Catholics must not have any civil or political rights and do not have the right to express publicly any religion outside of Roman Catholicism, but had the right to privately profess and practice any religion; moreover, this principle states that Roman Catholicism should be the only religion allowed by the State.
Principle
This principle states that non-Roman Catholics must not have any civil or political rights and do not have the right to express publicly any religion outside of Roman Catholicism, however they had the right to privately profess and practice any religion; moreover, this principle states that Roman Catholicism should be the only religion allowed by the State.[3][4][5]
Catholic theology prior to Vatican II held that the ideal was a confessional state unified with the Catholic Church, with the reasoning that the Catholic Church's revealed truth would lead to "perfect justice", and if the state allowed error to be expressed, it would detract from this.[6] The underpinning of this preference for an absolutist confessional state was the view that error had no rights, and that non-Catholics could or should be persecuted.[6][7][8] According to this traditional view, people who were not members of the Catholic Church did not deserve any civil and political rights because they were deemed to be in error.[4]
To put it simply, this principle flowed "from a whole series of theological and political premises: that individuals are obligated to embrace religious truth; that Catholicism is the one true religion; that religious liberty is to be understood as an empowerment, as the moral right of individuals to profess and practice their beliefs; that 'total care' of the common good [...] is committed to the state; that religious truth is an integral element of this good; and that the state's total care for the common good thus encompasses the care of religion."[5]
History
For centuries, the Catholic Church maintained close connection to the State and used state coercion (such as the Inquisition) to punish people whom they deemed to be heretics.[9] In practice, while often persecuted, non-Catholics in Catholic-majority countries were sometimes tolerated, often either because of the personal sensitivities by members of the clergy, or out of hope of converting people to Catholicism.[6]
In 1832, Pope Gregory XVI released the encyclical Mirari vos, rejecting freedom of the press, religious liberty, and separation of church and state as based on indifferentism. Liberty of conscience, Gregory wrote, was "a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other".[10] The arguments condemning freedom of religion were reiterated by Pius IX in his 1864 Syllabus of Errors.[7]
The "error has no rights" principle was still the official position of the Catholic Church in the 1950s.[3] At the time, the implementation of the "error has not rights" principle made it so that in Latin America and Southern Europe, where Catholics had power, Protestants suffered religious persecutions as they had no rights due to their religious choice.[11]
Dignitatis humanae keeps the theological premises of the "error has no rights" principle, but "implicitly modifies the political theory underlying it. To begin with, it distinguishes between the common good in toto and that 'component' of this good which is entrusted in a 'special' manner to the state, affirming that the care of the common good devolves not upon the state alone, but 'upon the people as a whole, upon social groups, upon government, and upon the Church and other religious communities ... in the manner proper to each'. Secondly, it distinguishes between the moral and juridical dimensions of religious liberty, between the question of our obligations toward religious truth, and the question of the role of the state in enforcing these obligations. Finally, it brings into play the whole subject of the implications of our dignity as persons—as beings who possess intelligence and freedom—for the pursuit of religious truth and ordering of human social life."[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung". H. Böhlaus Nacht. October 2, 1978 – via Google Books.
- ^ Zecha, G.; Weingartner, P. (December 6, 2012). Conscience: An Interdisciplinary View: Salzburg Colloquium on Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789400938212 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Hertzke, Allen D. (2005). "Roman Catholicism and the Faith-based Movement for Global Human Rights". The Review of Faith & International Affairs. 3 (3): 19–24. doi:10.1080/15570274.2005.9523222. S2CID 144921864.
- ^ a b Pawlikowski, John T. (1989). "Catholicism and the Public Church: Recent U.S. Developments". The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics. 9: 147–165. doi:10.5840/asce198999. ISSN 0732-4928. JSTOR 23559453.
- ^ a b c Grasso, Kenneth L.; Hunt, Robert P. (2005-12-01). "Dignitatis Humanae and the Catholic Human Rights Revolution". The Review of Faith & International Affairs. 3 (3): 3–10. doi:10.1080/15570274.2005.9523220. ISSN 1557-0274.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
1979Pwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b FitzPatrick, Paul (2013). "Review of Catholicism and Democracy: An Essay in the History of Political Thought". The Furrow. 64 (10): 573–576. ISSN 0016-3120. JSTOR 24635791.
- ^ Russell, Frederick H. (1975). The Just War in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-521-29276-4.
- ^ "Does Inquisition Belong to Religious History?". The American Historical Review. February 2005. doi:10.1086/ahr/110.1.11.
- ^ Carey, Patrick W. (1989). "American Catholics and the First Amendment: 1776–1840". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 113 (3): 323–346. ISSN 0031-4587. JSTOR 20092357.
- ^ Kuzmič, Peter (December 2004). "TO SUFFER WITH OUR LORD: CHRISTIAN RESPONSES TO RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION". The Brandywine Review of Faith & International Affairs. 2 (3): 35–42. doi:10.1080/15435725.2004.9523192. ISSN 1543-5725.