Error has no rights

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"Error has no rights" (

traditionalist Catholic principle. It asserts that it is the responsibility of governments to suppress non-Catholic religions as they do not have a right to express publicly any religion outside of Catholicism which should be the only religion allowed by the State, but had the right to privately profess and practice any religion. Alternatively, it asserts that while non-Catholics had civil or political rights, there is no theological toleration for such religious beliefs.[3][4] It was still the official position of the Catholic Church in the 1950s, and was repudiated[5][6] or superseded[7] in the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 by Dignitatis humanae. It is also argued, based on the interpretation that the moral right to error is distinct from the legal right, that this principle was not superseded by Dignitatis Humanae.[8]

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.[9][10][11]

It was also argued that the principle meant that although error had no rights, people in error had rights.[12][4] In this interpretation, the state only suppresses those errors which are a danger to public safety rather all things it identifies as errors.[13] It is also suggested that it was a rejection of theological[3] or moral right rather than a legal right.[14]

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][15][16] 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.[10]

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".[11]

History

For centuries, the Catholic Church maintained close connection to the State and used state coercion (such as

heretics.[17] 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

Pius IX in his 1864 encyclical Quanta cura and the attached Syllabus of Errors.[15]

The "error has no rights" principle was still the official position of the Catholic Church in the 1950s.

Protestants suffered religious persecutions as they had no rights due to their religious choice.[19]

Superseding

The American Catholic theologian

Jesuit theologian John Courtney Murray over the latter's unorthodox interpretation of church teaching on church-state relations. Murray's dissenting position was adopted in the Declaration of Religious Freedom at Vatican Council II in 1964, and Fenton's positions have been eclipsed".[20]

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".[11]

After Vatican II, some Catholic leaders such as Cardinal

Society of St. Pius X have rejected the Vatican II reforms, especially their teaching on religious liberty.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung". H. Böhlaus Nacht. October 2, 1978 – via Google Books.
  2. ISBN 9789400938212
    – via Google Books.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780802843005
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 9781620066850
    .
  5. ^ a b Cogley, John (8 December 1965). "Freedom of Religion; Vatican Decree Supplants Ancient Doctrine That 'Error Has No Rights'". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  6. ^
    JSTOR 23564895
    .
  7. ^
    doi:10.5840/cssr20121724
    .
  8. ISBN 9780810889187
    .
  9. ^
    S2CID 144921864
    .
  10. ^
    JSTOR 23559453
    .
  11. ^
    S2CID 143611920
    .
  12. ISBN 9780776603087
    .
  13. ISBN 9781555915285
    .
  14. ISBN 9780847684540
    .
  15. ^
    JSTOR 24635791
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0-521-29276-4
    .
  17. doi:10.1086/ahr/110.1.11
    .
  18. JSTOR 20092357
    .
  19. S2CID 145623036
    .
  20. OCLC 260209337
    .
  21. S2CID 153688457
    .
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