Abstract
This paper explores continuity and change in the American Catholic hierarchy’s promotion of and later reliance on religious freedom. With an analysis spanning more than 50 years, it first traces the pressures for reform that created the Declaration more than 50 years ago, demonstrating that American bishops were crucial actors in the Declaration’s existence and passage, and that this was the case because of the strong legitimacy pressures they were under as Roman Catholic leaders in a predominantly Protestant country. The paper then turns to a summary of how the Birth Control Mandate of the Affordable Care Act once again created pressures for legitimacy for the American Catholic hierarchy, pressures which were again articulated in terms of critiques of hypocrisy. It demonstrates that although the specific critique changed, accusations of hypocrisy remain central in discussions of the Catholic Church’s stance on the Birth Control Mandate in the Affordable Care Act.
Highlights
This paper explores continuity and change in the American Catholic hierarchy’s promotion of and later reliance on religious freedom
This paper explores the continuity and change regarding the American Catholic hierarchy’s promotion of and later reliance on the Declaration of Religious Freedom
The paper turns to a summary of how the Birth Control Mandate of the Affordable Care Act once again created pressures for legitimacy for the American Catholic hierarchy, pressures which were again articulated in terms of critiques of hypocrisy
Summary
Historians and theologians have referred to Religious Freedom as one of, if not the, most important and radical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Humanae, is perhaps the most consequential and the most radical departure from tradition. It establishes the very conditions of possibility for a modern type of Catholic public religion. Without this declaration every other document would have been for all practical purposes meaningless In Vatican II [4], I demonstrated that Religious Freedom was a concern to Catholic theologians living in (mostly) majority Protestant countries, and that American members of the hierarchy and theologians were concerned, and central to the debates
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