Religious freedom in the Second Vatican Council. What we can learn fifty years later

Abstract

The Declaration Dignitatis Humanae (Latin for «of the Dignity of the Human Person») offers, unlike others declarations and constitutions of the council, unique characteristics: It was addressed to good-willed men and women, it was drafted and developed while many bishop were deprived of liberty and finally, in line with the tradition of the Church, it differed from emblematic documents as Syllabus (1864) in recognition, on one hand, of every man and woman’s religious basis and, on the other hand, their right to choose religion.