Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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r. Ma uif44} e t si{r uia4 x 4 , FREEDOM OF REII6I0N ACADEMIC FREEDOM FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF POLITICAL BELIEF ECONOMIC FREEDOM

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 The 1955-56 School year will mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of Marquette as a college. In general, the theme of the Seventy-fifth Jubilee celebration is that learning contributes to the freedom of man. In keeping with this topic, we have chosen as our theme to discuss the five freedoms and how they have been fostered by Marquette through seventy-five years of higher Catholic education. To commence the Jubilee celebrations we think it fitting that the principles of faith and reason which have guided Marquette education for seventy-five years be restated and reaffirmed. It is with this object in mind that we present to the student body, faculty, and friends of Marquette the 1955 Hilltop. The Editors

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Freedom of Religious Belief )p ALL mans liberties, freedom of religion is flu highest. Since a freedom is concerned with the unforced choice of a good, and since the greatest of all goods is Cod, the greatest freedom is the freedom to worship Cod and to make one’s own choices in regard to that worship. Marquette University, as a Catholic institution of learning, upholds this vital right both in the educating of its students and in its everyday attitudes and practices. Religious liberty, like all human liberty, is based on free will. Cod has made us such that we do not just do blindly what is proper to us. Unlike the rest of earthly creation, we have reason and free will. We are therefore expected to make our own choices, guided by reason. Man's greatest dignity lies in this fact. Thus Cod does not force man to worship Him. He commands it, but we ourselves must choose to obey. Nor does Cod make it inevitable that we shall honor Him in a particular way. True, we are required to reach Cod by using the means which He wills us to use. but it is our privilege to recognize by reason just what that means is. and freely to decide to follow it. So, in its essence, religions freedom simply can not lx taken away from any man. Whatever forces are brought against him. his convictions and his will are untouchable. All a suppressor can do is to hold him back from the external expression of his religion. Only in that manner is it possible to curtail freedom of religion. Such suppression is immoral except when the expression of one person’s religion is grievously harmful to another individual, or to the community. Since we are social beings, our external acts affect the lives of others who come in contact with us. If this influence is bad. then the state, which has the charge of protecting its members, may put an end to the dangerous practice. If our religious acts hurt no one, however, there is no earthly power which can rightfully call a halt to them. Our right to the free expression of our religious liberty may not be violated. Every educational institution should aim, at least indirectly, at enabling each man to keep his right to worship Cod, and to worship Him as his conscience directs. A school can help promote such a situation, because our religious choices depend on our reason. In choosing according to conscience, we are following our reason. Should our intellect be mistaken, and our choices actually lx unreasonable, the chances are far greater that we will harm others by our religious acts, and so lose our freedom of worship. Our reasoning power needs training in forming correct judgments, and needs a store of truths on which to base its views. Education alone can provide these things to the intellect, and this learning is best acquired at a