Error has no rights

"Error has no rights" (Latin: Error non habet ius)[1][2] was the traditional Catholic principle that Catholics or non-Catholics ought not to express erroneous opinions. It was promoted by some Church authorities as late as the 1950s,[3] and was repudiated[4][5] or superseded[6] by the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965.

History

Catholic theology holds that "the splendour of the truth ... shines forth deep within the human spirit,"[7] that the truth is unitary, and that it subsists within the Catholic Church. Prior to Vatican II the social teaching of the Church suggested that the ideal was a confessional state harmonious with the teachings of the Church, with the reasoning that, in Jesus' words, "the Truth shall set you free," and thus be the path to "perfect justice", and if the state allowed the expression of error to get out of hand, it would detract from that goal.[5] 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.[5][8][9] 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]

For centuries, the Catholic Church maintained close connection to the state and used state coercion (such as the Inquisition) to punish people whom they deemed to be heretics.[11] 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.[5]

In 1832, Pope Gregory XVI released the encyclical Mirari vos, rejecting freedom of the press, religious liberty, and separation of church and state as based on indifferentism. Liberty of conscience, Gregory wrote, was "a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other".[12] The arguments condemning freedom of religion were reiterated by Pius IX in his 1864 Syllabus of Errors.[8]

Repudiation

The American Catholic theologian John Courtney Murray worked throughout the 1950s to reconcile Catholic teachings with religious pluralism and democracy. He encountered significant resistance from more traditionalist Catholics. However, his ideas were eventually included in the Vatican II reforms as the Declaration on Religious Liberty (1965).[3][4] According to the new view, people do have rights even if they are considered in error.[6]

After Vatican II, some Catholic leaders such as Cardinal Józef Glemp and part of the Spanish Church hierarchy still sympathized with the older "error has no rights" approach. However, they realized that it was inconsistent with developments in the world at large and therefore supported counter-proselytization rather than legal restrictions on non-Catholic religions.[13] Traditionalist Catholics such as Society of St. Pius X have rejected the Vatican II reforms, especially their teaching on religious liberty.[6]

See also

References
  1. "Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung". H. Böhlaus Nacht. October 2, 1978 – via Google Books.
  2. Zecha, G.; Weingartner, P. (December 6, 2012). Conscience: An Interdisciplinary View: Salzburg Colloquium on Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789400938212 – via Google Books.
  3. Hertzke, Allen D. (2005). "Roman Catholicism and the Faith-based Movement for Global Human Rights". The Review of Faith & International Affairs. 3 (3): 19–24. doi:10.1080/15570274.2005.9523222. S2CID 144921864.
  4. 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.
  5. Pawlikowski, John T. (1979). "Human Rights in the Roman Catholic Tradition: Some Theological Reflections". Selected Papers from the Annual Meeting (American Society of Christian Ethics): 145–166. doi:10.5840/selpapasce19797. JSTOR 23564895.
  6. Whitehead, Kenneth D. (2012). "Martin Rhonheimer, Changing the World: The Timeliness of Opus Dei". Catholic Social Science Review. 17: 298–301. doi:10.5840/cssr20121724.
  7. John Paul II, Pope. "Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth)". Holy See. August 6, 1993. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  8. FitzPatrick, Paul (2013). "Review of Catholicism and Democracy: An Essay in the History of Political Thought". The Furrow. 64 (10): 573–576. ISSN 0016-3120. JSTOR 24635791.
  9. Russell, Frederick H. (1975). The Just War in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-521-29276-4.
  10. Pawlikowski, John T. (1989). "Catholicism and the Public Church: Recent U.S. Developments". The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics. 9: 147–165. doi:10.5840/asce198999. ISSN 0732-4928. JSTOR 23559453.
  11. "Does Inquisition Belong to Religious History?". The American Historical Review. February 2005. doi:10.1086/ahr/110.1.11.
  12. Carey, Patrick W. (1989). "American Catholics and the First Amendment: 1776–1840". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 113 (3): 323–346. ISSN 0031-4587. JSTOR 20092357.
  13. Anderson, John (2003). "Catholicism and democratic consolidation in Spain and Poland". West European Politics. 26 (1): 137–156. doi:10.1080/01402380412331300237. S2CID 153688457.
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