Conscience Has Rights Because It Has Duties

As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops kick off their Fortnight for Freedom today, let us reflect on this passage from Blessed John Paul II’s Vertatis Splendor, in which he shares his thoughts on the importance of freedom of conscience:

The human issues most frequently debated and differently resolved in contemporary moral reflection are all closely related, albeit in various ways, to a crucial issue: human freedom. 

Certainly people today have a particularly strong sense of freedom. As the Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae had already observed, "the dignity of the human person is a concern of which people of our time are becoming increasingly more aware." Hence the insistent demand that people be permitted to "enjoy the use of their own responsible judgment and freedom, and decide on their actions on grounds of duty and conscience, without external pressure or coercion." In particular, the right to religious freedom and to respect for conscience on its journey towards the truth is increasingly perceived as the foundation of the cumulative rights of the person. 

This heightened sense of the dignity of the human person and of his or her uniqueness, and of the respect due to the journey of conscience, certainly represents one of the positive achievements of modern culture. This perception, authentic as it is, has been expressed in a number of more or less adequate ways, some of which however diverge from the truth about man as a creature and the image of God, and thus need to be corrected and purified in the light of faith. 

Did You Know?: Blessed John Paul II and the Saints

Did you know that Blessed John Paul II canonized and beatified more people than any other Pope in Church History?

He celebrated 147 beatification ceremonies during his pontificate, proclaiming 1,338 Blesseds; and he celebrated 51 canonizations, proclaiming 482 saints. That total exceeds the number of canonizations and beatifications made by all other Popes combined!

These Saints were welcomed into the presence of God after death because they lived heavenly lives on earth. In recognizing them, Blessed John Paul II inspired the Church with countless models of truth and holiness. In his 1993 encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, he wrote:

The Church proposes the example of numerous Saints who bore witness to and defended moral truth even to the point of enduring martyrdom, or who preferred death to a single mortal sin. In raising them to the honour of the altars, the Church has canonized their witness and declared the truth of their judgment, according to which the love of God entails the obligation to respect his commandments, even in the most dire of circumstances, and the refusal to betray those commandments, even for the sake of saving one's own life.

To view a list of these Saints and Blesseds, check the Holy See’s website. And in order to learn more about the Saints and Blesseds canonized and beatified by Blessed John Paul II, check back here at Open Wide the Doors.