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Twentieth Century And Vatican II Essay

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TWENTIETH CENTURY AND VATICAN II The twentieth century was a witness to a new social organization of the state and the rising of totalitarian regimes, which represented a threat to the principles of the individual that the Church defended. Popes Pius XI and Pius XII defended the rights of each person in their statements. These notions signified also a development in the idea of religious freedom. However, it would be Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council who would affirm clearly the stance of the Church on this issue. The totalitarian states claimed an ethical state that would be free from any kind of relationship with religions. Thus, religion became only a private practice in some European states. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church continued to demand a thesis/hypothesis kind of relationship with the states, which was in place since the nineteenth century. Herminio Rico S.J. explains in his book John Paul II and the Legacy of Dignitatis Humanae that the thesis principle was that the Catholic Church was the true religion and as true religion, only she should be allowed to have public worship. In addition, the state should have the Church as the official religion and any other religions should be forbidden of worshiping in public to prevent the faithful to fall in error. Rico goes ahead to explain that the hypothesis was that exceptions to the thesis should be made in those places where the public order or severe animosity against the Church interfered with the ideal

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