Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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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

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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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college or university. The “self-educated man can accomplish much, but he necessarily does it in a slow and fragmentary manner. The systematic learning supplied by a good college enables us to make intelligent, reasonable religious choices, causing rules of suppression to lx unnecessary. Education aids the cause of religious liberty in still another way. In learning to seek truth, we also learn how difficult tliat search is. If the religious choices of another seem misguided to us. we realize tliat any human being can attain the truth only after much effort. Our inclination, then, is to attempt to move the other by reasoning and prayer, ratlier than by force. Marquette University, therefore, with its high educational standards, prepares its students both to be free and to respect the freedom of others. A specific-ally Catholic education, moreover, is especially valuable in promoting freedom. • Many schools of our day. though they may be quite advanced in their teaching of secular knowledge, are content to leave their students with a rudimentary concept of Cod. Catholic schooling, on the other hand, keeps Cod in our intellectual life. We are therefore encouraged to see the world and mankind in their proper relation to God. instead of falling into tlx habit of making all our judgments in worldly terms. In addition, a Catholic education aids freedom because of its results in the moral character of the students. Having become convinced of our obligations to Cod, and consequently to men. wo will need fewer laws to make us perform our duties to God; and we will lx aware that we are morally bound to treat our fellows with justice and charity, however disagreeable tbeir religious profestations may appear. Tliat these claims are true of Marquette may lx seen by the attitude of its directors toward conscience and religious duties. Many Marquette students are non-Catholics. Though they are welcome to take theology courses, they are not forced to do so. Moreover, they need not attend any sort of Catholic religious services. Yet they are encouraged to worship God actively in whatever way is theirs. Catholic students, too, are not forced into worship. Nobody checks on how often they attend Mass or go to confession. Nobody attempts to investigate the amount of virtue in their private lives. It is taken for granted that the)- know what things they ought to do. and are capable of freely choosing to do them. Thus Marquette, following its purpose of increasing and communicating tlx knowledge of truth, prepares its students well to lx guardians of religious freedom.