An alarming right

“Every day I expect a Western Country to file a legal suit against the Church of Rome for not having granted priestly ordination to a homosexual or a woman”. The provoking statement was delivered by Nikolaus Lobkowicz, from the Catholic university of Eichstatt, Germany, during the meeting held in Amman, Jordan, past June 23-24 of OASIS Study and Research Centre’s Scientific Committee. The Centre was founded 5 years ago by the patriarch of Venice, cardinal Angelo Scola, in order to establish a Muslim-Christian network of relations and meetings and to promote mutual understanding (www.oasiscenter.eu). The two-day symposium, attended by 70 experts and scholars from 16 World Countries, was devoted to religious freedom and its value as perceived by prevailing cultural traditions.A legal claim… When we speak of religious freedom, Lobkowicz said, we are referring to “the legitimate and legal claim regarding the right to chose at any given moment – without any drawbacks – one’s religious belief. In other words, the right to publicly claim the wish to live in compliance with one’s chosen religion. This claim is normally guaranteed by the Constitution, since it is directed to the State. This is why most modern Constitutions and/or legal systems place strict limits to the government’s right to interfere in the internal affairs of a legally recognized religion”. with limits. However, the expert declared, “it’s important to be aware that this claim -or right- must respect a series of limits, some of which are the object of public debate in the Western world and can differ from one Country to the next”. One of the reasons is that “no Constitution defines the concept of religion. Generally speaking, religious freedom is viewed as a fundamental human right provided that it does not interfere with law and order, as defined in the Constitution”. The human right to religious freedom “risks increasing conflict with other human rights, especially the right to equality and the right not to be discriminated for irrelevant reasons”. In other words, Lobkowicz declared, “one of the problems of modern Western Countries is the hubbub stirred by small acrimonious minorities which pretend to be granted greater terrain”. Meaningful examples. The Council declaration Dignitatis Humanae mentions this limit on several occasions, referring to “just law and order”. Mr.Lobkowicz gave a series of examples: “In France, Muslim girls are not allowed to wear the veil in public schools, universities included, since secular legislation dating back to 1905 prohibits religion from interfering with public institutions. Recently, the same thing happened in Turkey where Ataturk’s secularism has become part of the Constitution. In Germany, Muslim teachers of public schools are forbidden to wear the veil in class since they are civil servants and must therefore abide to religious neutrality when performing their jobs. To what extent is the wearing of the veil a religious precept or simply a symbol of Muslim identity is another story. In some European Countries such as Germany, animal slaughtering according to Jewish or Muslim rite is the object of much criticism, since it conflicts with the view that animals shouldn’t be subjected to undue suffering. In Austria this is possible in the case of birds but not for mammals”. Every day I expect… These are minor elements pertaining to the sphere of religious freedom which, Mr. Lobkowicz pointed out, “are likely to continue disturbing Constitutional Courts and politicians. By coincidence in the West they constitute evidence of ongoing developing secularization”. In Britain, a recent Court ruling established that “school-texts must only mention the terms ‘parents’, not ‘mother and father’ since the latter discriminates same-sex parents.” This is the reason for Lonkozicz’ provocative statement: “every day I expect there to be a legal suit in a Western Country accusing the Church of not having admitted a homosexual or a woman to priestly ordination”. As relates to religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae marked a turning point in the sphere of human rights. “Its extraordinary merit is that of having shifted the topic of religious freedom from the concept of truth to the sphere of human rights. While preserving its emphasis on truth – Lobkowicz concluded – the Church no longer intends to claim the right to power since she is motivated by the yearning to reach the human hearts as Jesus Christ did”.