AFFIRMING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
How Vatican Council II Developed the Church’s Teaching to Meet Today’s Needs

AFFIRMING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
How Vatican Council II Developed the Church’s Teaching to Meet Today’s Needs

Vatican II adopted an approach to religious liberty based on affirming the human dignity of the religious believer. This new emphasis was reflected in the title of its declaration on religious freedom Dignitalis Humanae which means “On Human Dignity.” In it the Church, speaking through the Council, teaches that “the human person has a right to religious freedom.” What is entailed by this right is “that all men are to be immune from coercion on t he part of individuals or of social groups and of every human power in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, within due limits.” This book goes into detail regarding the implications of this new emphasis on what the Church has traditionally held and taught, but which has not always been well understood.

About the Author: Kenneth D. Whitehead is a former career Foreign Service Officer who served in Rome, the Middle East, and North Africa. He later served in the U.S. Department of Education as President Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of Education for Postsecondary Education. He now works as a writer, editor, and translator in Falls Church, Virginia. He is the author, among other books, of One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Early Church Was the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press, 2000), and, most recently, The New Ecumenism: How the Catholic Church after Vatican II Took over the Leadership of the World Ecumenical Movement (ST PAULS / Alba House, 2009). He is likewise co-author (with James Likoudis) of The Pope, the Council, and the Mass (Revised Edition, Emmaus Road Publishing, 2006). Mr. Whitehead serves on the Boards of Directors of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and the Review of Metaphysics