The year 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae. This landmark document teaches that religious freedom is not merely a right created by government but rather a fundamental human right that comes from God. Religious freedom is rooted in the freedom of conscience. The Catholic Church teaches that the conscience is the voice of God in the human heart, so disobedience to the conscience is disobedience to God. Human beings should be immune from compulsion in everything related to the making or rejecting of an act of religious faith. Furthermore, religious organizations should have immunity from coercion in the public expression of their faith and of the social implications of that faith.

How is religious liberty being threatened today? On a world scale, religious persecution is increasing. According to the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion and Public Life, 70% of the world’s population lives in countries where religious faith is highly restricted. The International Society for Human Rights reports that 150,000 Christians are killed for the faith each year. Some estimates report that, during the 20th century, 45 million Christians died for their faith. There are more Christian martyrs around the world today than at any other time in history. Christians are the victims of about 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world. Christians face persecution in over 60 countries.

These dramatic developments are nothing new for those who study Scripture and Christian history. After all, Jesus said, “You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:22). Our first pope, St. Peter, said, “Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ … if you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you. … Whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name” (1 Pt 4:13-16).

Two historic Catholic martyrs who are special patrons of religious liberty are St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. These brilliant men gave their lives in witness tot heir deep faith in Christ and his Church.

Thomas More was a husband and father. John Fisher was the Catholic bishop of a small diocese in England called Rochester. When King Henry VIII divorced his wife and decided to marry another, these two holy men did not approve. Then the monarch claimed himself to be the supreme head of the Church in England, and he told these men that they needed to sign the Oath of Supremacy, saying that the king had power over the faith of English Christians.

In their consciences, Thomas More and John Fisher could not sign it. Consequently, they were convicted of treason. They were not traitors but true patriots. When the law of the king came into conflict with the law of Christ, they chose Christ. They were beheaded in 1535. They are officially honored as martyr saints on the Catholic calendar. They bear witness to the fact that no government can make a claim on a person’s conscience or soul.

Another example of heroic sacrifice for the sake of religious freedom comes from the time of historic persecution against the Catholic faith in Mexico. In the late 1920s, the Mexican Constitution under President Plutarco Calles restricted the freedom of the Catholic Church in that country. For three years, no public ceremonies were allowed in the Catholic churches.

Then came a Catholic uprising against the national government, called the “Cristero Rebellion.” The Catholics who rebelled called themselves the “Cristeros.” Many of those Cristeros gave their lives as martyrs for our faith.Their slogan was “Viva Cristo Rey,” or “long live Christ the King.” Many of those courageous Catholics were executed by the government in firing squads, like the famous Father Miguel Pro. Their last defiant act was to shout, “Long live Christ the King.”

Another one of those Catholic martyrs in Mexico was a teenager named St. Jose Sanchez del Rio. When he was just 14 years old, he was put to death by government officials because he refused to renounce his Catholic faith. He wanted the chance to give his life for Jesus Christ. He was captured by government forces, who ordered him to renounce his faith in Christ, under threat of death. He refused. As they brutally tortured him, they said, “If you shout, ‘Death to Christ the King,’ we will spare your life.” He responded courageously, “I will never give in. Viva Cristo Rey!” The government of Plutarco Calles ended long ago, but Catholics in Mexico and here in Texas are still going strong.

There are many places in the world today where the freedom of religion continues to be threatened. The most serious persecutions are carried out by the following:

• Islamic national governments such as Saudi Arabia and Iran
• Authoritarian communist regimes such as Cuba, North Korea, China, Vietnam, and Nicaragua
• Religious nationalism in places like India, Sri Lanka, and Russia, where there is a fusion of the state, a particular faith, and national identity
• Governments with a harsh secular ideology, such as the post-Soviet republics in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan)
• Non-state actors that increasingly harass, desecrate, or attack other religions:
  • Hindu extremist groups in India
  • Boko Haram in Nigeria
  • Al-Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya

Religious liberty is also threatened today in many parts of Western Europe and North America, where the public expression of religion and traditional religious values is increasingly unwelcome. In the United States, while the freedom of religion is the “first freedom” enshrined in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, many people would prefer to restrict religion to something that only takes place within the walls of churches, synagogues, or mosques. Many voices in government, academia, and the media tell us that our religious faith has no right to affect our decisions about how we do business in the world.

In some places, for example, those who attempt to live their lives in a way that is consistent with their sincerely held religious beliefs about the true nature of marriage are labeled as haters and bigots. It is becoming increasingly difficult for believers to teach their faith and their values to their children without that teaching being labeled as discriminatory or “hate speech.” There have been many cases where people trying to live their public lives in conformity with their faith have been coerced by social and governmental pressures.

However, being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not something we simply leave behind each time we walk out the door of a church. Our faith impacts all aspects of our life — at home, at church, at school, at play, at work, in our community services to the poor, in the way we treat our neighbors, and in the way we structure our society. Freedom of religion is not just about freedom of worship. It is also about regular people, in their everyday lives, trying to act in the world according to their moral convictions. Our religion is something we carry with us everywhere we go.

Considering the many threats to religious liberty in our world and our nation, there are many things that we can do:

1. Pray for our nation, our courts, and the respect of religious freedom around the world.
2. Stay informed about current events.
3. Speak the truth in love.
4. Encourage government leaders to respect and defend religious liberty here and abroad.
5. Join with members of other faiths to speak for mutual respect: In his 2015 address at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pope Francis said, “It is imperative that the followers of the various religious traditions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance, and respect for the dignity and the rights of others.”
6. Support agencies that assist persecuted Christians, such as Aid to the Church in Need and Catholic Relief Services.
7. Reflect on religious liberty issues and suggested actions steps with the help of this website from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.usccb.org/committees/religious-liberty.

The value of religious freedom is expressed beautifully in several films which are readily available for home use. I recommend viewing and discussing any of these films: A Man for All Seasons, about the martyrdom of St. Thomas More; For Greater Glory, about the struggle for religious freedom in Mexico at the time of the Cristero Rebellion; and Becket, about the 12th-century English martyr St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

If you would like to learn more about the Church’s teachings on religious liberty, I recommend that you study the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae, published on Dec. 7, 1965. It is easily available on the Vatican website, www.vatican.va. Another helpful document is Our First, Most Cherished Liberty, published in April 2012 by the United States Conference of Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.