2 thoughts on “Why not a Catholic society instead of a liberal theocracy?”

  1. Catholic society
    Mr. Kalb, thanks for this piece and your other writings. I am flummoxed by Dignitatus Humanae, but I submit to the Church’s authority. I also would prefer a Catholic society, but coercion is in the nature of government. For what should it coerce, and at whose direction, seem to be pertinent questions. Best wishes.

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    • Dignitatis humanae
      It’s not clear what the document ends up meaning. It says that religious freedom, including public manifestations, are to be allowed within due limits set (for example) by public morality. It also says that the moral obligations of men and societies toward the Catholic Faith and Church remain what they have always been thought to be. So in a Catholic society would it be against public morality to deny the faith, so it could be forbidden to do so?

      In Europe today it’s criminal to say Mohammad had a thing for little girls, or homosexuality is evil and unnatural, or the magnitude or importance of the Holocaust have been exaggerated. I don’t believe that the Church has categorically denounced all such provisions. How would that approach to the relation between public order and public speech carry over to a Catholic society?

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