The Spanish school system presents serious problems. High rate of school failure, poor quality, lack of discipline and appreciation of effort, discouragement of teachers, excess of pedagogicalism, are just some of them. However, all these deficiencies are but symptoms caused by a more serious and fundamental evil: the lack of freedom. The school is an […]

Several voices have alerted in the last years about a worrisome tendency in India to persecute religious minorities and to limit their constitutional freedoms. Possibly among these voices a recent article published last December in the New York Times rang all the alarms and made clear to everybody the extent and implications of such a […]

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about cultural events inspired by various religious traditions and their presence in public space. Due to the majority of the Roman Catholic religion in Poland, these are mainly associated with Christmas representations (so called „nativity plays”), the organization of Christmas meetings and the temporary presence of symbols […]

Freedom consists in a constant and eternal Love of God. Baruch Spinoza Democracy and religion Of course, democracy has as many definitions as there are researchers of political thought, and perhaps even politicians themselves. However, it’s the same with religion. It also – as argued Fr. I. M. Bocheński – can’t be defined in the […]

There’s a curious amnesia in contemporary Ireland about religious persecution. Two anecdotes to illustrate that claim: I was celebrating a wedding in a medieval church in the Irish midlands. The landscape there is dotted with such churches, but this is one of the few that is in use today as a Catholic church. Chatting to […]

„The Spirit you received does not make you slaves…” Rom 8:15 1. Concern about freedom When we consider the colloquial meaning of the word „freedom”, we most often (always, maybe?) encounter its apology. We are dealing here with making a universalistic claim against it, and omitting to consider what freedom is it about. Freedom presents […]

On October 25 one year passed from the day, when a wave of social dissatisfaction with the content of the judgment issued by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal on the unconstitutionality of abortion due to genetic defects of the fetus poured through not only Polish streets, but also churches. In one of the churches, during the […]

Religious freedom is a domain of human life in society. It is something that is given to man by nature, and not by social agreement, at the discretion of the ruler or the majority. For this reason, the moral demands related to religious freedom are of natural law, and thus must be respected and protected […]

If we try to look at the words contained in the title of this text – freedom and responsibility – it would probably turn out that the status of these two is quite different. While freedom has been and remains a highly valued concept within culture and language, the concept of responsibility is not always […]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on November 10, 1948, contains the following words in its preamble: whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and […]