DIGNITATIS

HUMANAE
OF THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
 DIGNITATIS HUMANAE
DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
ON THE RIGHT OF THE PERSON AND OF COMMUNITIES
TO SOCIAL AND CIVIL FREEDOM IN MATTERS RELIGIOUS
PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON DECEMBER 7, 1965
 What is Dignitatis Humanae?

Essentially a declaration of religious freedom and the call

for all Christians to respect religious freedom, a freedom
which must also be permitted by states. The church must
be allowed to work freely, but compulsion or force must
play no part in a person’s response to God.
 What is Dignitatis Humanae?
• Dignitatis humanae spells out the church's support for the
protection of religious liberty. It set the ground rules by which
the church would relate to secular states, both pluralistic ones
like the United States and officially Catholic nations like Malta
and Costa Rica
 Who promulgated Dignitatis
Humanae?
Promulgated by His Excellency Pope Paul VI. Real name: Giovanni
Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (26 September 1897
Concesio, Italy- 06 August 1978 Castel Gandolfo, Italy). Paul was
head of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 to his death in
1978.)
When was it promulgated?

Promulgated on December 7, 1965.

• The passage of this measure by a vote of 2,308 to 70 is
considered by many to be one of the most significant events of
the council.

• The document, Dignitatis Humanae, lasted for four sessions,

starting from 1962 up to 1965.

• The document has 15 chapters

• The declaration of Dignitatis Humanae, according to some
people, is in contrast with the declaration of Pope Leo XIII
during his reign.

• The French Revolution, the failed radical Revolutions of

1848 and the loss of the Papal states traumatized many
Catholic leaders, who held on to traditional ideas of relations
with the secular powers.
 John Courtney Murray
• Developed a view based on the American experience, where a
government limited by law protects the liberty of all religious
communities equally, while the church pursues its aims by
exercising its influence in society in general, without relying on
government intervention to enforce the church's beliefs
 John Courtney Murray
• Contradicted essential Catholic teachings.

• In 1954 Murray's ideas were censored by the Secretary of

the Holy Office and he ceased publishing works on this specific
topic until his vindication by Vatican II
• The Catholic Church of England and Wales constituted
the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which aims to
continue the goal of Dignitatis Humanae as
promulgated by Pope Paul VI.
 Marcel Lefebvre?
• He denounced the Vatican II Declaration on Religious
Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae, as irreconcilable with orthodox Catholic
doctrine.
• So Dignitatis Humanae's strict teaching is about the authority
of the state, not the Church; and, far from contradicting
nineteenth-century papal teaching, the declaration recognizes
and makes explicit what Leo XIII's two powers theory implies
for the moral rights of the individual against the state in
matters of religion once the state has become secular.