VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Religious freedom is “a cornerstone of any just society” and contributes to building peace, Pope Leo XIV said.
Welcoming a delegation to the Vatican Oct. 10 from Aid to the Church in Need, Pope Leo said the papal foundation’s annual report on religious freedom around the globe “bears witness, gives voice to the voiceless and reveals the hidden suffering of many” because of the denial or limits on their religious liberty.
“Our world continues to witness rising hostility and violence against those who hold different convictions, including many Christians,” the pope told the group. “In contrast, your mission proclaims that, as one family in Christ, we do not abandon our persecuted brothers and sisters. Rather, we remember them, we stand with them, and we labor to secure their God-given freedoms.”
Because “every human being carries within his or her heart a profound longing for truth, for meaning and for communion with others and with God,” he said, the right to religious freedom “is not optional but essential.”
“Rooted in the dignity of the human person, created in God’s image and endowed with reason and free will, religious freedom allows individuals and communities to seek the truth, to live it freely and to bear witness to it openly,” the pope said. “It is therefore a cornerstone of any just society, for it safeguards the moral space in which conscience may be formed and exercised.”
As a human right, he said, religious freedom is not something granted by a government. Rather, “it is a foundational condition that makes authentic reconciliation possible.”
“When this freedom is denied, the human person is deprived of the capacity to respond freely to the call of truth,” Pope Leo said. “What follows is a slow disintegration of the ethical and spiritual bonds that sustain communities; trust gives way to fear, suspicion replaces dialogue and oppression breeds violence.”
Aid to the Church in Need was founded after World War II and, the pope said, “its mission from the beginning has been to foster forgiveness and reconciliation, and to accompany and give a voice to the church wherever she is in need, wherever she is threatened, wherever she suffers.”
The foundation’s annual religious freedom report was scheduled to be released Oct. 21 in Rome.
