Leo XIII, Vatican II and Religious Liberty - Continuity or Contradiction? (clip)

In this clip from Episode 90 of The Catholic Culture Podcast, Prof. Thomas Pink discusses the relationship between Vatican II’s declaration on religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae) and the prior teachings of Pope Leo XIII and other popes on the relationship between Church and State. Are they actually or only seemingly contradictory?

The decree manages to be consistent with prior teaching by confining itself to statements about the civil order—that is, the authority that the State, in itself, possesses over religion, which is nil. In this way, Dignitatis Humanae is ironically a Leonine document insofar as its treatment of the civil order is drawn from his distinction between the two powers.

At the same time, however, it dodges the whole question of legitimate religious coercion (of heretics etc) by the State *not of its own authority but when acting as agent of the Church*. This is how the progressive party at the Council influenced the document—not by getting it to contradict past teachings, but by preventing it from specifically enumerating those teachings.

As a result, even most conservative Catholics today are either unaware of or uncomfortable with the traditional teachings on Church and State.

Watch the whole episode: https://www.catholicculture.org/comme...

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