The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

WOF 520: Defending Religious Freedom

10 snips

Dec 15, 2025

Robert Barron, a Catholic bishop and founder of Word on Fire, discusses the pressing need to defend religious freedom globally. He highlights alarming threats to Christians, such as discrimination in schools and acts of violence. Barron explains that religious liberty is grounded in human dignity and moral law, emphasizing the importance of freedom for genuine worship. He critiques the idea of religious imposition, promotes dignity as a basis for advocacy, and argues for recalibrating church-state boundaries to protect religious expression in public life.

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ANECDOTE

Students Silenced Over Simple Christian Expression

A student was told she could not wear a mask that said "Jesus loves me" during COVID despite other expressive masks being allowed.
Another student who sang a Christian song at a school talent show was told it was inappropriate, illustrating everyday religious-expression limits.

INSIGHT

Error Has No Rights; People Do

Dignitatis Humanae argues "error has no rights, but erroneous people do," grounding religious liberty in human dignity.
Coercing belief violates the sacred interior of conscience and thus human dignity.

INSIGHT

Religious Freedom Equals Public Exercise

Freedom of religion includes the public exercise of faith, not merely private belief or speech.
Christianity is intrinsically public, so free exercise must allow visible public religious action.

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Religious freedom, especially for Christians, is under attack across the globe, including in the West–including right here in the United States. Whether insidiously in the form of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that block Christians from employment and advancement opportunities, or, overtly, like vandalism against churches, or, in some parts of the world, murderous violence against Christians themselves, in terms of sheer numbers–and this fact is often ignored–Christians are, by far, the most persecuted religious group in the world. While defending religious freedom is important for people of all faiths, or no faith at all, it is thus especially urgent for believers in Christ. How, then, can we work together as a church and as a society to make progress on this front? Taking a step back, what, specifically, is religious freedom and why is it a universal human right? What is the relationship between the free exercise of religion and freedom of speech? And how can we respond to the secular charge that religious freedom is merely a backdoor means for the faithful to impose their beliefs on others?

A listener asks how we can grow in confidence that Catholicism is the one true religion.

Topics Covered:

00:00 | Introduction 01:36 | Concluding Winona-Rochester's diocesan synod 03:24 | The work of the Religious Liberty Commission 07:33 | Responding to Religious Liberty Commission criticism 09:11 | The inherent priority of religious liberty 12:32 | Distinguishing the freedoms of religion, conscience, and speech 14:26 | Is religious liberty necessary for worship? 16:33 | Understanding "due limits" to religious liberty 19:33 | Proposition or imposition? 20:24 | Civil authority and religious authority 22:40 | Truth and relativism 27:25 | How poor conceptions of religion undermine religious liberty 28:27 | Advocating for religious liberty 30:06 | Religious freedom in society 31:36 | Why religious liberty matters for evangelization 32:48 | Listener question: How can we know Catholicism is true? 36:01 | Join the Word on Fire Institute

Links:

Dignitatis Humanae: Vatican document
Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

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