Abstract: The COVID pandemic has created novel legal issues involving the interplay between a government’s legitimate aim in promoting and safeguarding public health and its obligation to respect religious freedom. Never in the history of the modern Human Rights era have governments, or the courts, had to deal with the balancing of these competing interests […]

From ‘Je suis Charlie’ to the ‘Phobic’ Hysteria. Paradoxes of Free Speech Abstract: In recent years, we have witnessed a striking contrast in the protection of freedom of expression. On the one hand, it is not uncommon to claim that insult or blasphemy are legitimate and genuine aspects of free speech as a fundamental right. […]

Abstract: Violations of religious freedom are increasing dramatically across the globe. Yet, the voices of those victimized by acts of religious bias are often unheard in western discourse. This paper brings visibility to an issue of critical importance to many vulnerable people, specifically Christians and other people of faith who experience acts of intolerance, hate, […]

Abstract: How did we arrive at this point in our thinking about religious freedom? Why are our public debates on such topics so rarely fruitful and so often hostile, especially in a time of pandemic? I will tell a crucial chapter of that history. Seventeenth-century Europe was an age of epidemics and religiously-based persecution, yet […]

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 […]