The Pope has delivered his most robust
defence of religious freedom to date once again accusing some Western countries
of attempting to marginalise religion, remove religious symbols from public view
and of overriding the conscience rights of religious believers.

In his annual address to the Vatican
diplomatic corps, Pope Benedict also drew attention to the very serious and
often mortal threats faced by Christians in some parts of the world including
Iraq and Pakistan where the death penalty exists for those found guilty of
blasphemy.

He called for this law to be revoked.

Referring to some Western countries, the Pope
said Christians are faced with “other kinds of threats to the full exercise of
religious freedom”, including proposals to force Christian health workers to
act against their conscience.

In Ireland in the last year,
Ministers John Gormley and Dermot Ahern have attacked freedom of religion. The
Civil Partnership Act makes no allowance for freedom of conscience or
religion, and a Catholic fertility doctor was investigated by the Medical
Council for treating only married couples.

The Pope told diplomats: “I think in the
first place of countries which accord great importance to pluralism and
tolerance, but where religion is increasingly being marginalised. There is a
tendency to consider religion, all religion, as something insignificant, alien
or even destabilising to modern society, and to attempt by different means to
prevent it from having any influence on the life of society. Christians are
even required at times to act in the exercise of their profession with no
reference to their religious and moral convictions, and even in opposition to
them, as for example where laws are enforced limiting the right to
conscientious objection on the part of health care or legal professionals.”

However, he praised the adoption by the Council of Europe last
October of a resolution protecting the conscience rights of medical workers. A
previous resolution had called for doctors to be forced to perform procedures
such as abortion even against their belief where there was a medical ‘emergency’.

Senator Ronan Mullen played a key role in defeating that
resolution.

In an apparent reference to Spain, the Pope said
he could not “remain silent about another attack on the religious freedom of
families in certain European countries which mandate obligatory participation
in courses of sexual or civic education which allegedly convey a neutral
conception of the person and of life, yet in fact reflect an anthropology
opposed to faith and to right reason.”

Spain has a compulsory civics
course which critics say is heavily relativistic in its approach to morality
and sexuality.

Finally, the Pope told diplomats
that “religion does not represent a problem for society, that it is not a
source of discord or conflict.”

He stated: “I would repeat that
the Church seeks no privileges, nor does she seek to intervene in areas
unrelated to her mission, but simply to exercise the latter with freedom”.

The defence of religious freedom
is one of the most important themes of this pontificate.