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POPE FRANCIS, TRUE RELIGION, AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2019

Joel Harrison
Joel Harrison*
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer, The University of Sydney, Sydney Law School
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Abstract

This article examines Pope Francis's understanding of the relationship between church and state, the ends of civil authority, and the importance of religious liberty. It argues that Francis challenges claims made by legal and religious scholars that civil authority must be neutral as to religious ends. Francis, the article contends, uses the categories of idolatry and solidarity as opposing ends that are cultivated by civil authorities caring for, most notably, the economy and the environment. Both are religious. Idolatry is the solipsistic pursuit of created things as an ultimate end and solidarity entails living in communion with God and others. The article further considers how these arguments have shaped Francis's views on religious liberty. Francis points to the importance of civil authorities respecting conscientious objection, the desirability of cultivating healthy pluralism, and religious liberty as securing the end of solidarity. This presents two challenges: first, to recent legal scholarship questioning the special importance of religious liberty; and second, to the exercise of religious liberty itself. If religious liberty is protected for the end of solidarity, can it be exercised wrongly? The article concludes by considering the Supreme Court's 2014 Hobby Lobby decision.

Keywords

Pope Francisreligious libertycivil authority and religious endsidolatrysolidarityHobby LobbyDignitatis Humanae
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , December 2018 , pp. 447 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2019 

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References

1 William T. Cavanaugh, Return of the Golden Calf: Economy, Idolatry, and Secularization since Gaudium et Spes, 76 Theological Studies 698 (2015).

2 Id. at 708–11.

3 Francis, Lumen Fidei [Encyclical on faith] (2013), § 13, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20130629_enciclica-lumen-fidei.html [hereinafter Francis, Lumen Fidei].

4 Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 699.

5 See infra, the section titled “True Religion.”

6 See infra, the section titled “True Religion.”

7 See infra, the section titled “Solidarity, Fraternity (and Love).”

8 In this, Francis follows his two immediate predecessors, who tended toward explicitly theological construals of political and social space. See Luke Bretherton, Christianity and Contemporary Politics 54–55 (2010).

9 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at § 46.

10 See similarly Calo, Zachary R., Human Rights and Healthy Secularity, 7 Journal of Catholic Social Thought 231 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 See infra, the section titled “Pope Francis and Religious Liberty.”

12 This is often explicitly noted. Laudato Si’ is directed to “every person living on this planet … [a] dialogue with all people about our common home.” Francis, Laudato Si’ [Encyclical on care for our common home] (2015), § 3, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html [hereinafter Francis, Laudato Si’].

13 See, e.g., Micah Schwartzman, What If Religion Is Not Special?, 79 University of Chicago Law Review 1351 (2012); Jocelyn Maclure & Charles Taylor, Secularism and Freedom of Conscience (2011); Christopher L. Eisgruber & Lawrence G. Sager, Religious Freedom and the Constitution (2007).

14 See, e.g., Ronald Dworkin, Religion without God chapter 3 (2013). This is also increasingly reflected in case law in different jurisdictions. See Harrison, Joel & Parkinson, Patrick, Freedom beyond the Commons: Managing the Tension between Faith and Equality in a Multicultural Society, 40 Monash University Law Review 413, 424–27 (2014)Google Scholar.

15 Ronald Dworkin, Justice for Hedgehogs 4 (2011).

16 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc, 134 S. Ct. 2751 (2014).

17 Augustine, Concerning the City of God against the Pagans [Book XIX], chapters 13 and 21 (Henry Battenson trans., 2003).

18 See Augustine, Of True Religion, in Augustine: Earlier Writings 218, 231 (J.H.S. Burleigh ed., 1953) (discussing the catholic and orthodox people as “guardians of truth and followers of right” who “make use of the nations as material for its operations”).

19 Id. at 273.

20 Gelasius I, Letter to Emperor Anastasius, in From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought 100–1625, at 179 (Oliver O'Donovan & Joan Lockwood O'Donovan eds., 1999).

21 John Milbank, Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People 219 (2013); Jean Bethke Elshtain, Sovereignty: God, State, and Self 12–13 (2008).

22 Leo XIII, Immortale Dei [Encyclical on the Christian constitution of states] (No. 1, 1885), § 13, https://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_01111885_immortale-dei.html [hereinafter Leo XIII, Immortale Dei].

23 Id.

24 Quoted in Brennan, Patrick McKinley, The Liberty of the Church: Source, Scope, and Scandal, 21 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 165, 174 (2013)Google Scholar.

25 Russell Hittinger, Dignitatis Humanae, Religious Liberty, and Ecclesiastical Self-Government, 68 George Washington Law Review 1035, 1039 (2000).

26 Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae [Declaration of religious freedom] (1965), § 3, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html [hereinafter Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae].

27 Id. at § 1.

28 Bradley, Gerard, Pope John Paul II and Religious Liberty, 6 Ave Maria Law Review 33, 51 (2007)Google Scholar, quoting Brian W. Harrison, Religious Liberty and Contraception 60 (1988) (Bradley's ellipses).

29 Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 6.

30 Id. at § 13. Russell Hittinger argues that the liberty of the church is primary in Dignitatis Humanae and should be used to interpret the Council's statements on conscience. See Hittinger, Russell, An Issue of the First Importance: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of Dignitatis Humanae, 30 Journal of Law and Religion 461 (2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 13.

32 Hittinger, supra note 30, at 473.

33 Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes [Pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world] (1965), § 43, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html [hereinafter Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes].

34 Id.; and Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 6; see also Bradley, supra note 28, at 52.

35 See also Brennan, supra note 24, at 180–81.

36 Murray, John Courtney, Leo XIII and Pius XII: Government and the Order of Religion, in Religious Liberty: Catholic Struggles with Pluralism 49, 50 (Hooper, J. Leon ed., 1993)Google Scholar.

37 Id. at 53–54; John Courtney Murray, The Problem of Religious Freedom, in Religious Liberty: Catholic Struggles with Pluralism, supra note 36, at 127, 183.

38 See Murray, supra note 37, at 137, 152; John Courtney Murray, The Issue of Church and State at Vatican Council II, in Religious Liberty: Catholic Struggles with Pluralism, supra note 36, at 199, 232–33.

39 Schindler, David L., Freedom, Truth, and Human Dignity: An Interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae on the Right to Religious Liberty, 40 Communio 208, 211–12 (2013)Google Scholar.

40 See Murray, supra note 37, at 145.

41 Schindler, supra note 39, at 215–16 (discussing John Courtney Murray, The Declaration on Religious Freedom: A Moment in its Legislative History, in Religious Liberty: An End and a Beginning 28–29 (John Courtney Murray ed., 1966)).

42 Murray, supra note 37, at 144.

43 See, e.g., Murray, supra note 36, at 55 (discussing the Elizabethan Acts of Uniformity).

44 See Murray, supra note 38, at 203. In writing before Vatican II, Murray arguably gives the state a larger role. Discussing the encyclicals of Leo XIII, he contends that the civil order “must facilitate the passage of man to a higher life.” Murray, supra note 36, at 85.

45 See, e.g., Murray, supra note 36, at 79.

46 Murray, supra note 37, at 185.

47 John Courtney Murray, in 3 Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society 30, 73 (1948): 30, 73, quoted in Patrick McKinley Brennan, An Essay on Christian Constitutionalism: Building in the Divine Style, for the Common Good(s), 16 Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion 478, 490 (2015).

48 John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition 56–60 (1960).

49 Murray, John Courtney, The Declaration of Religious Freedom, in Vatican II: An Interfaith Appraisal 571–72 (Miller, John ed., 1966)Google Scholar, quoted in Schindler, supra note 39, at 221–22.

50 See also Su, Anna, Catholic Constitutionalism from the Americanist Controversy to Dignitatis Humanae, 91 Notre Dame Law Review 1445, 1446–49 (2016)Google Scholar. Su frames Dignitatis Humanae as the product of the U.S. experiment, in which religious plurality is negotiated by nonestablishment and Catholics have sought to demonstrate they can fit within this. For criticism of such attempts, see Cavanaugh, William T., Are We Free Not to Be a Religion? The Ambivalence of Religious Freedom, in Field Hospital: The Church's Engagement with a Wounded World 234, 242–48 (2016)Google ScholarPubMed.

51 Garnett, Richard W., “The Freedom of the Church”: (Towards) An Exposition, Translation, and Defense, 21 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 33, 41 (2013)Google Scholar, quoting Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 6.

52 Garnett, Richard W., Neutrality and the Good of Religious Freedom: An Appreciative Response to Professor Koppleman, 39 Pepperdine Law Review 1149, 1155–56 (2013)Google Scholar.

53 See Garnett, Richard W., A Hands-Off Approach to Religious Doctrine: What Are We Talking About?, 84 Notre Dame Law Review 837, 861–62 (2009)Google Scholar.

54 Garnett, supra note 51.

55 Id. at 51.

56 Garnett, supra note 52, at 1156.

57 Elsewhere Garnett writes of individual religious conscience as the ultimate beneficiary of religious freedom. See Garnett, Richard W., Do Churches Matter? Towards an Institutional Understanding of the Religion Clauses, 53 Villanova Law Review 273, 295 (2008)Google Scholar.

58 Garnett, supra note 51, at 41; Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 612 (1971).

59 Horwitz, Paul, Freedom of the Church without Romance, 21 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 59, 87 (2013)Google Scholar.

60 See Richard W. Garnett, “Two There Are”: Understanding the Separation of Church and State, in The American Experiment: Religious Freedom 319 (2008).

61 Murray, supra note 48, at 44.

62 Id. at 44, 54, 78. Murray acknowledged that what he considered to be the American consensus was arguably fractured. He believed this would result in problematic consequences, such as a rejection of the church's claim to public status; states would claim an indivisible sovereignty. Id. at 66. But Murray claimed that this was a recent problem, not something traceable to America's origins. Id. at 54–56. A contrast could at least be made with Steven Smith's argument that America's constitutional founding posed competing schools of public philosophy—providentialist and secularist. See Steven D. Smith, The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom chapter 3 (2014).

63 Murray, supra note 48, at 47–50.

64 Id. at 47.

65 See, respectively, Weber, Max, Politics as Vocation, in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology 77, 77–78, 82–94 (Gerth, H. H. & Mills, C. Wright eds., 1948)Google Scholar; Jürgen Habermas & Joseph Ratzinger, The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion 25–28 (Brian McNeil trans., 2006); Charles Taylor, A Secular Age 2 (2007).

66 Taylor, supra note 65, at 2.

67 Murray, supra note 48, at 77.

68 José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World, 40 (1994).

69 This is not inevitable. Tracey Rowland notes that the references in Gaudium et Spes to aggiornamento (“bringing up to date”) have been interpreted in broadly two ways. Some see it as arguing that the church must update itself to the standards of the modern world. Others argue that openness to the modern world entails ressourcement—understanding contemporary conditions in light of church tradition (especially Patristic and Scholastic thought). Tracey Rowland, Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II 6–7, 19, 93 (2003).

70 Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, supra note 33, at § 36.

71 Id. at §§ 55, 64, and 76.

72 Id. at § 42.

73 Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 702.

74 Id. at 700.

75 Id. at 702.

76 Murray, supra note 48, at 67.

77 Guillaume Goubert & Sébastien Maillard, Interview: Pope Francis (Stefan Gigacz trans.), La Croix (May 17, 2016, 8:57 AM), http://www.la-croix.com/Religion/Pape/INTERVIEW-Pope-Francis-2016-05-17-1200760633.

78 Id.

79 Id.

80 See, supra text accompanying note 17.

81 Francis, Message of Holy Father Francis to the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on the Occasion of the 13th Inter-Christian Symposium (Aug. 19, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130819_xiii-simposio-intercristiano.html.

82 John Paul II, Centesimus Annus [Encyclical on the hundredth year] (1991), § 5, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus.html; Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est [Encyclical on Christian love] (2005), § 28, http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html.

83 Benedict XVI, Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to H.E. Mrs. Cristina Castaner-Ponce Enrile New Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines to the Holy See (Oct. 27, 2008), http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2008/october/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20081027_ambassador-philippines.html.

84 See Calo, supra note 10, at 231.

85 Id. at 234.

86 Id. at 236.

87 Id. at 249–50.

88 Id. at 241, 248.

89 Id. at 240.

90 See infra, the subsection titled “Conscience.”

91 Schindler, supra note 39, at 249.

92 Id. at 251 (emphasis in original).

93 See Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 699–705.

94 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at § 13.

95 See respectively, Francis, Profession of Faith with the Bishops of the Italian Episcopal Conference (May 23, 2013), https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130523_omelia-professio-fidei-cei.html, quoted in Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 704; Francis, Evangelii Gaudium [Exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today's world] (2013), § 56, https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html [hereinafter Francis, Evangelii Gaudium]; Id. at § 54; Id. at § 2; Id. at § 54; Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 12, at § 203.

96 Augustine, Confessions [Book I] (Henry Chadwick trans., 2008).

97 Ward, Graham, The Commodification of Religion, or the Consummation of Capitalism, in Theology and the Political: The New Debate 327, 335 (Davis, Creston, Milbank, John, & Žižek, Slavoj eds., 2005)Google Scholar.

98 Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 715.

99 Others have developed this claim. See, e.g., Graham Ward, Politics of Discipleship: Becoming Postmaterial Citizens chapter 3 (2009); James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation Part I (2009). Cavanaugh also discusses scholars who analyze branding and other consumption practices as religious. Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 713–15.

100 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 89.

101 Id. at § 63.

102 See the multiple references in Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 705.

103 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 56.

104 Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 12, at § 54.

105 Id. at § 142.

106 Id. at §§ 190–95.

107 Id. at § 175.

108 Id. at § 120.

109 Francis, Message of His Holiness Francis for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace (Jan. 1, 2014), at § 5, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/papa-francesco_20131208_messaggio-xlvii-giornata-mondiale-pace-2014.html [hereinafter Francis, Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace].

110 Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 12, at § 171.

111 Francis, Amoris Laetitia [Post-synodal apostolic exhortation on love in the family] (2015), 25–26, https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdf [hereinafter Francis, Amoris Laetitia].

112 Cardinal Ratzinger wrote of modern autonomy leading to “the increasingly vacuous entertainments of leisure-time society, a society … sated by the usual shabby pleasures.” Joseph Ratzinger & Marcello Pera, Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam 126 (2006). As pope, Benedict XVI was critical of “mere licence” uncoupled from duties. Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate [Encyclical on integral human development in charity and truth] (2009), § 43, http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html [hereinafter Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate]. On Pope John Paul II, see Bradley, supra note 28, at 35. Bradley also notes that before becoming pope, Karol Wojtyla expressed concern that freedom of conscience as recognized in Dignitatis Humanae could, if “exercised improperly,” lead to religious indifferentism and a relativistic world view.

113 Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 12, at § 6. Elsewhere, Francis argues that the ecological and cultural crisis—the environmental threat to our common home, the growth of inequality, a breakdown in solidarity—is fundamentally a “human crisis.” Francis, Address of the Holy Father Francis: Vigil of Pentecost with the Ecclesial Movements (May 18, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/may/documents/papa-francesco_20130518_veglia-pentecoste.html.

114 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at § 13.

115 Charles Taylor makes a related argument, noting that searches for individual authenticity can be entirely at one with corporations cultivating more and more products for “mutual displays of identity.” Taylor, supra note 65, at 483.

116 Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 705.

117 See Graham Ward, supra note 97, at 335 (distinguishing the logic of the icon and the idol in Christian thought). On the claimed contrast to orientating oneself to God, see infra, the section titled “Solidarity, Fraternity (and Love).”

118 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 61.

119 Cavanaugh, supra note 1, at 705 (quoting Francis).

120 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 53.

121 Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 12, at § 2.

122 See infra note 174.

123 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 205.

124 See supra text accompanying note 47.

125 See supra text accompanying note 17.

126 I leave to one side the important possibility that “worshipping earthly powers” (Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 12, at § 75) can include the state itself. Rather, my focus is on Francis's writing and speeches. On this possibility see, e.g., Paul S. Kahn, Political Theology: Four New Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (2011). Kahn updates Carl Schmitt. For the latter, war is the ultimate political act; it determines the existence of a people (friends) as against enemies, and renders the sovereign visible in ensuring existential survival. See Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, 29, 32–33 (George Schwab trans., 2007 [1932]). The category “political theology” examines this. It is grounded on the willingness to demand sacrifice: wars, even on Kahn's account the total war of nuclear annihilation, as well as acts of affiliation (like pledges and flag veneration) all point to the will to endure and constitute the sacred space of the state itself, requiring ultimate allegiance.

127 Francis, Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, supra note 109, at § 1.

128 Id.

129 Id. at §§ 5 and 10.

130 Francis, Address of Pope Francis to the European Parliament (Nov. 24, 2014), https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/november/documents/papa-francesco_20141125_strasburgo-parlamento-europeo.html [hereinafter Francis, Address to the European Parliament].

131 Id.

132 See also Harrison, Joel, “A Communion in Good Living”: Human Dignity and Religious Liberty beyond the Overlapping Consensus, in Understanding Human Dignity 451, 461–64 (McCrudden, Christopher ed., 2013)Google Scholar (discussing the personalist tradition developed by Jacques Maritain and Karol Wojtyla, in particular).

133 See also Milbank, John, Paul against Biopolitics, in Paul's New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology 21 (Milbank, John, Žižek, Slavoj, & Davis, Creston eds., 2010)Google Scholar.

134 1 Corinthians 12:7.

135 Francis, Message of the Holy Father to the Participants in the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (April 28, 2017), https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2017/04/28/170428h.html [hereinafter Francis, Message to the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences].

136 See John Milbank, Dignity Rather than Rights, in Understanding Human Dignity 189, 201–20 (Christopher McCrudden ed., 2013).

137 John Paul II, Laborem Exercens [Encyclical on human work] (1981), § 15, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html.

138 Francis, Address to the European Parliament, supra note 130.

139 Id.

140 John Paul II, Solicitudo Rei Socialis [Encyclical for the twentieth anniversary of Populorum Progressio] (1987), § 38, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30121987_sollicitudo-rei-socialis.html [hereinafter John Paul II, Solicitudo Rei Socialis]; Francis, Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, supra note 109, at § 4.

141 John Paul II, Solicitudo Rei Socialis, supra note 140, at §§ 38–40.

142 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at § 3.

143 Id. at § 8 (“Faith is our response to a word which engages us personally, to a ‘Thou’ who calls us by name.”).

144 Id. at § 3.

145 Id. at §§ 3, 18.

146 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 92.

147 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at §§ 51, 54.

148 Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, supra note 112, at § 6.

149 Id. at § 5.

150 Id. at § 1. See, e.g., Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 205.

151 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at § 13.

152 Francis, Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, supra note 109, at § 1.

153 See supra text accompanying notes 104–10.

154 See, e.g., Francis, Meeting with the Members of the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization [Address of the Holy Father] (Sept., 25, 2015), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150925_onu-visita.html [hereinafter Francis, Meeting with the General Assembly of the United Nations]; Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 61; Francis, Address of Pope Francis to Participants in the Conference on International Religious Freedom and the Global Clash of Values (June 20, 2014), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/june/documents/papa-francesco_20140620_liberta-religiosa.html [hereinafter Francis, Address to the Conference on International Religious Freedom and the Global Clash of Values] (“Persecution against Christians today is actually worse than in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs today than in that era.”); Francis, Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Christians in the Middle East (Dec. 21, 2014), https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2014/documents/papa-francesco_20141221_lettera-cristiani-medio-oriente.html.

155 Francis, Meeting with the General Assembly of the United Nations, supra note 154.

156 Id.

157 Francis, Welcoming Ceremony [Address of the Holy Father] (Sept. 23. 2015),  http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150923_usa-benvenuto.html [hereinafter Francis, Welcoming Ceremony].

158 Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, Our First, Most Cherished Liberty [A Statement on Religious Liberty] (March, 2012), http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/our-first-most-cherished-liberty.cfm#_ftn2.

159 See Harriet Sherwood, Obama and the Pope Defend “Religious Liberty”—But Where and for Whom?, Guardian, September 24, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/obama-pope-francis-religious-liberty-american-catholics.

160 Zubik v. Burwell, 136 S. Ct. 1557 (2016) (vacating and remanding to the Court of Appeals after the parties agreed to find an alternative procedure for providing contraception to insured persons).

161 See Jim Yardley & Laurie Goodman, Pope Francis Met with Kim Davis, Kentucky County Clerk, in Washington, New York Times, September 30, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/county-clerk-kim-davis-who-denied-gay-couples-visited-pope.html?_r=0 (discussing both meetings).

162 See Sandhya Somashekhar, Judge: Kim Davis May Keep Her Name off Marriage Licenses, Washington Post, February 10, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/02/10/judge-kim-davis-may-keep-her-name-off-marriage-licenses/?utm_term=.234b60875ca3.

163 Linda Bordoni, Pope Francis: I'm Not a Star, but the Servant of Servants of God (Sept. 28, 2015, 11:53 AM), http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2015/09/28/pope_francis_i'm_not_a_star,_but_the_servant_of_servants_of_god”/en-1175317.

164 Id.

165 Goubert & Maillard, supra note 77.

166 Francis, “Two Kinds of Persecution”: Morning Meditation in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae (April 12, 2016), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2016/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20160412_two-kinds-of-persecution.html [hereinafter Francis, “Two Kinds of Persecution”].

167 Ronald Dworkin, Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate 73 (2006) (“identifying these areas as matters of ethical conviction, a category more abstract [and therefore more congruent with his version of political morality] than religious liberty.”).

168 Eisgruber, Christopher L. & Sager, Lawrence G., The Vulnerability of Conscience: The Constitutional Basis for Protecting Religious Conduct, 61 University of Chicago Law Review 1245, 1266 (1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

169 Martha Nussbaum, Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality 169 (2008).

170 This is perhaps more prominent in the United States: see Obergefell v. Hodges, 134 S. Ct. 2584, 2599 (2015) (Kennedy J.) (linking the person's capacity for choice with his or her dignity); Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 851 (1992) (joint opinion of O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter JJ.). However, the emphasis on personal autonomy is seen, for example, in U.K. religious liberty jurisprudence. See R (Williamson) v. Secretary of State for Education and Employment, [2005] 2 A.C. 246, § 22 (U.K.H.L.) (Lord Nicholson of Birkenhead).

171 Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 2.

172 Hittinger, Russell, Humanae, Dignitatis, Religious Liberty, and Ecclesiastical Self-Government, 68 George Washington Law Review 1035, 1046 (2000)Google Scholar.

173 Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 2.

174 Speaking to a conference on religious freedom, Francis stated, “[E]very human being is a ‘seeker’ of the truth of his own origin and of his own destiny … thoughts and questions arise, which cannot be smothered.” Francis, Address of Pope Francis to the Conference on International Religious Freedom and the Global Clash of Values, supra note 154.

175 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at § 8.

176 Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 3.

177 Id. at § 1 (“The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth.”).

178 Id. at § 10 (footnotes omitted). See also Finnis, John, Religion and Public Life in a Pluralist Society [2004], in 5 Religion & Public Reasons 42, 49 (2011)Google Scholar; Weiler, Joseph H.H., A Christian Europe? Europe and Christianity: Rules of Commitment, 6 European View 143, 148 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar (discussing this view of noncoerced truth).

179 Schindler, supra note 39, at 287 (emphasis in original). Schindler claims a necessary relationship between freedom and truth. In this way, he arguably raises a critical question in response to Thomas Pink's thesis: namely, that Dignitatis Humanae addressed only noncoercion in respect of the state, leaving untouched the coercive authority of the church. See Pink, Thomas, The Right to Religious Liberty and the Coercion of Belief: A Note on Dignitatis Humanae, in Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis 427 (Keown, John & George, Robert P eds., 2013)Google Scholar. However, Pink distinguishes coercing the baptized—through sanctions like excommunication or loss of title—with a clear prohibition on coercing the unbaptized to enter into Catholic faith.

180 Francis, Address to the Conference on International Religious Freedom and the Global Clash of Values, supra note 154; Francis, “Two Kinds of Persecution,” supra note 166.

181 Bordoni, supra note 163.

182 See John Paul II, Fides et Ratio [Encyclical on the relationship between faith and reason] (1998), § 32, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html (discussed in Hittinger, supra note 30, at 472); Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, supra note 26, at § 3 (“The inquiry is to be free, carried on with the aid of teaching or instruction, communication and dialogue.”).

183 See supra text accompanying note 116.

184 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 255.

185 Francis, Meeting for Religious Liberty with the Hispanic Community and Other Immigrants (Sept. 26, 2015), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150926_usa-liberta-religiosa.html [hereinafter Francis, Meeting for Religious Liberty with the Hispanic Community and Other Immigrants]. See also Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 255.

186 See Victor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli, The Structure of Pluralism (2014); Jacob T. Levy, Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom (2015); Paul Horwitz, First Amendment Institutions (2013).

187 Muñiz-Fraticelli, supra note 186, at 1.

188 Francis, Message to the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, supra note 135.

189 Levy, supra note 186, at 284–85.

190 Id. at 295.

191 Muñiz-Fraticelli, supra note 186, at 13–16.

192 Id. at 18–28.

193 Id. at 16, 28.

194 See, e.g., Levy, supra note 186, at 4 (discussing ancient constitutionalism as liberalism's precursor).

195 John D. Inazu, Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving through Deep Difference (2016).

196 Id. at chapter 1.

197 Id. at 119–20.

198 Id. at 17.

199 See Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at §§ 64 and 183–82. See also Francis, Press Conference of His Holiness Pope Francis Onboard the Flight from Colombo to Manila (Jan. 15, 2015), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/january/documents/papa-francesco_20150115_srilanka-filippine-incontro-giornalisti.html (warning against treating “religions or expressions of religion [as] a sort of subculture which are tolerated but insignificant; they are not part of our enlightened culture”).

200 See Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 64.

201 Francis, Address of Pope Francis to Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (Nov. 28, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/november/documents/papa-francesco_20131128_pc-dialogo-interreligioso.html [hereinafter, Francis, Address to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue].

202 Id.

203 Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, supra note 112, at § 26.

204 McFarlane v. Relate Avon Ltd [2010] E.W.C.A. Civ. 880, [2010] I.R.L.R. 872, § 21.

205 Francis, Address to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, supra note 201.

206 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 236; Francis, Meeting for Religious Liberty with the Hispanic Community and Other Immigrants, supra note 185.

207 Bretherton, supra note 8, at 15.

208 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 254.

209 Jeremy Waldron, One Law for All? The Logic of Cultural Accommodation, 59 Washington and Lee Law Review 3, 4, 7–8 (2002). In contrast, see Multani v. Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys and A-G of Quebec [2006] 1 S.C.R. 256, § 36 (Charron J) (emphasizing the kirpan's relationship to pacifism).

210 See John Milbank, Shari'a and the True Basis of Group Rights: Islam, the West, and Liberalism, in Shari'a in the West 135, 144 (Rex Ahdar & Nicholas Aroney eds., 2010).

211 Contra Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) v. Charity Commission for England and Wales [2010] E.W.H.C. 520, [2010] P.T.S.R. 1074 (Ch) (The United Kingdom's Blair government determined that all adoptions services must comply with the sexual orientation non-discrimination duty. Catholic Care's attempt to continue its practice of serving only married couples was rejected.).

212 Francis, Meeting for Religious Liberty with the Hispanic Community and Other Immigrants, supra note 185; Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 12, at § 106.

213 See supra note 13.

214 Dworkin, supra note 14, at chapter 3.

215 Notable scholars emphasize the importance of making available a range of options. See, e.g., Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom 410 (1986). Ronald Dworkin also sometimes draws an analogy between ethics and the free market fixed by individual decisions. See Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality 214 (2000); Dworkin, supra note 167, at 75–77. If we follow the logic of consumer markets, being satisfied with a “good” is not the goal. Rather, to stimulate investment and produce new goods, what matters is constantly deferring satisfaction in favor of continual shopping. See William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire 47 (2008).

216 Civil authority consequently cultivates what Schindler calls an “originally positive sense of community.” Schindler, supra note 39, at 313. To this extent, Thomas Pink's claim that the state cannot “coerce or direct anyone in any way in religious matters” would need further unpacking. See Pink, supra note 179, at 437. I understand Pink to be arguing that state coercion into the Catholic faith or state requirements that citizens engage in specific acts of Catholic worship are impermissible (a claim Francis reiterates). However, the terms “direct” and “religious matters” are ambiguous. In this article, I am claiming that Francis does in fact consider civil authority must be engaged in directing toward religious matters if we understand religious matters—of an openness to the transcendent, manifesting as solidarity and charity, for example—are interwoven into matters of politics. The economy, the environment, and support for communities, all matters in which civil authority exercises authority, are religious. Arguably, this fits with Pink's claim that the state must “recognise and promote the religious life of its citizens.” Id. at 438.

217 Zachary R. Calo, Catholic Social Thought, Political Liberalism and the Idea of Human Rights, 1 Journal of Christian Legal Thought 1, 9 (2011).

218 See infra text accompanying note 255.

219 Francis, Meeting for Religious Liberty with the Hispanic Community and Other Immigrants, supra note 185.

220 Id.

221 Id.

222 Id.

223 Francis also contrasts these statements with exercises of religion that “must be firmly refuted as false since they are unworthy of God or humanity” (noting violence and unjustified discrimination). Vatican Radio, Pope to Albania's Faith Leaders: Religion is a Source of Peace (Sept. 23, 2014, 4:31 PM), http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2014/09/21/pope_to_albanias_faith_leaders_religion_is_source_of_peace/en-1107025.

224 Francis, Welcoming Ceremony, supra note 157.

225 Francis, Visit to the Joint Session of the United States Congress: Address of the Holy Father (Sept. 24, 2015), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150924_usa-us-congress.html.

226 Francis, Meeting with the General Assembly of the United Nations, supra note 154.

227 Francis, Meeting with the Leaders of Other Religions and Other Christian Denominations (Sept. 21, 2014), http://m2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/september/documents/papa-francesco_20140921_albania-leaders-altre-religioni.html.

228 Id (quoting John Paul II).

229 Id.

230 Francis, Message of Pope Francis to Cardinal Kurt Koch on the Occasion of the 10th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Busan, Korea, 30 October–8 November 2013) (Oct. 4, 2013), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20131004_world-council-churches.html. See also Francis, Meeting with the President, Prime Minister and Civil Authorities (Ankarra) (Nov. 28, 2014), http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/november/documents/papa-francesco_20141128_turchia-incontro-autorita.html.

231 Francis, Address to the European Parliament, supra note 130.

232 See McCrudden, Christopher, Legal and Roman Catholic Conceptions of Human Rights: Convergence, Divergence and Dialogue?, 1 Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 185, 195 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, quoting John XXIII, Pacem in Terris [Encyclical on establishing universal peace in truth, justice, charity, and liberty] (1963), § 60, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem.html [hereinafter John XXIII, Pacem in Terris].

233 John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, supra note 232, at § 29. See also Christopher McCrudden, supra note 232, at 193.

234 See Harrison, Joel, Debating Rights and Same-Gender Relationships, 4 Journal of Law, Religion and State 194, 213–17 (2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar (discussing the right to marriage within this frame).

235 Francis, Amoris Laetitia, supra note 111, at 205–06.

236 Campbell and Cosans v. United Kingdom, 4 Eur. Ct. H.R. 4, § 36 (1982).

237 Williamson, [2005] 2 A.C. 246, § 60 (Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe) (cautioning against extending “liberal tolerance” only to “tolerant liberals”).

238 X and Church of Scientology v. Sweden 16 Eur. Comm'n H.R. Dec. & Rep. 68, 72 (1976).

239 The Church of Scientology has been successful in more recent cases concerning group personality (Church of Scientology Moscow v. Russia, 46 Eur. Ct. H.R. 16 (2008)) and having its chapels recognized as a place of worship (R (Hodkin) v. Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, [2014] A.C. 610 (U.K.S.C.)).

240 Equality Act, 2010, sch. 2, Part 1, cl. 2 (Eng. and Wales).

241 Christian Youth Camps Ltd v. Cobaw Community Health Services Ltd, 308 A.L.R. 615 (2014), leave to appeal denied, [2014] H.C.A. Trans. 289 (21 December 2014)); Equal Opportunity Act 1995 (Vic) s 75(2) (Austl.).

242 Christian Youth Camps Ltd, 308 A.L.R. 615, §§ 230, 244.

243 See infra, the section titled “Hobby Lobby.” See further Aroney, Nicholas, Harrison, Joel & Babie, Paul, Religious Freedom under the Victorian Charter of Rights, in Australian Charters of Rights a Decade On 120 (Groves, Matthew & Campbell, Colin eds., 2017)Google Scholar.

244 See supra note 146.

245 Burwell, 134 S. Ct., at 2765–66.

246 Id. at 2762–63.

247 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb–2000bb-4.

248 Burwell, 134 S. Ct., at 2768–69.

249 Id. at 2780.

250 Id. at 2760.

251 Id. at 2794–95 (Ginsburg J., dissenting).

252 Id. at 2795 (Ginsburg J., dissenting).

253 Id.

254 Id. at 2797 (quoting Gilardi v. United States Dept of Health and Human Services, 733 F. 3d 1208, 1242 (2013) (Edwards J., concurring in part and dissenting in part)).

255 See, e.g., Vickers, Lucy, Twin Approaches to Secularism: Organized Religion and Society, 32 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 197, 201 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Raz, supra note 215, at 209 (arguing a collective right is recognized when the cumulative weight of individual interests requires it).

256 Lucy Vickers, Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination and the Workplace 225–26 (2008).

257 Strangely, this claim would apply to a typical parish church.

258 The majority stated, “Some lower court judges have suggested that RFRA does not protect for-profit corporations because the purpose of such corporations is simply to make money. This argument flies in the face of modern corporate law.” Burwell, 134 S. Ct., at 2770 (Alito J.) (footnotes omitted).

259 Id. at 2766.

260 See Hobby Lobby, Donations & Ministry Projects, Hobby Lobby, http://www.hobbylobby.com/about-us/donations-ministry (last visited March 7, 2017). Hobby Lobby is also the primary donor (along with the Green family) for the Museum of the Bible. The company recently paid a $3 million fine for illegally purchasing more than 5,500 objects, 4,000 of which were smuggled into the country. See Sashia Ingber, Hobby Lobby's Smuggled Artifacts Will Be Returned to Iraq, NPR, May 1, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/01/607582135/hobby-lobbys-smuggled-artifacts-will-be-returned-to-iraq.

261 Patrick Deneen, Even if Hobby Lobby Wins, We Lose, American Conservative, March 24, 2014, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/2014/03/25/hobbylobby/.

262 Karl Polyani, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time 48 (2d. ed. 2001 [1944]).

263 Id. at 60.

264 Cavanaugh, supra note 215, at 21.

265 For a criticism of Hobby Lobby on these points, see Jonathan Merritt, Stop Calling Hobby Lobby a Christian Business, Week, June 17, 2014, http://theweek.com/articles/446097/stop-calling-hobby-lobby-christian-business.

266 See Ross Douthat, A Company Liberals Could Love, New York Times, July 5, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-a-company-liberals-could-love-.html.

267 See Polyani, supra note 262, at 44.

268 See also John Milbank, Politics: Socialism by Grace, in Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon 162, 185 (2003) (discussing labor's fruits as “primarily a gift to the community which will relate to community values in crucially important ways”). I am grateful to one reviewer for raising a possible response: someone sympathetic to Hobby Lobby may see this line of argument as simply an aesthetic judgment against middlebrow tastes. It is, of course, an aesthetic judgment—a claim that one's aesthetic can have a better or worse relationship to justice and, indeed, beauty. But, more than this, Hobby Lobby and like stores are not simply responding to such middlebrow tastes (if they are indeed characterizable as such). Rather, they have cultivated or colonized, through cost-cutting, expansion, and marketing that inculcates desires, what is now taken to be middle or working-class taste.

269 Marc Augé, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (2d ed. 1995).

270 See supra text accompanying note 119.

271 Francis, Lumen Fidei, supra note 3, at § 51.

272 Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, supra note 95, at § 188.

273 Id.

274 Id. at § 54.

275 See, e.g., Luke Bretherton, Resurrecting Democracy: Faith, Citizenship, and the Politics of a Common Life chapter 8 (2016); John Milbank & Adrian Pabst, The Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future chapter 4 (2016) (both discussing “civil economy”).

276 Polyani, supra note 262, at 103. See also Max Weber's description of the spotless “bourgeois business man” who pursues profit as a sign of God's favor. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 177 (1971 [1930]).

277 Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, supra note 22, at § 25.

278 McCrudden, supra note 230, at 189.