Pope Benedict has chosen the theme of “religious freedom, the path of peace” as the theme of the 2011 World Day of Peace on January 1.

In a statement this week, the Holy See said that religious freedom was being restricted and denied all over the world, and that in addition to the more obvious forms of State violence against religion, there were situations “where more sophisticated forms of discrimination and marginalisation exist, on the cultural level and in the spheres of public, civil and political activity. “

It said: “’It is inconceivable that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights.

The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature'”.

The communique recalled Benedict XVI’s statement to the United Nations General Assembly in 2008: “Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian – a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer”.

The statement also highlighted how “man cannot be fragmented, and separated from what he believes, because that in which he believes has an impact on his life and on his person.

‘Refusal to recognise the contribution to society that is rooted in the religious dimension and in the quest for the Absolute – by its nature, expressing communion between persons – would effectively privilege an individualistic approach, and would fragment the unity of the person’. It is for this reason that: ‘Religious Freedom is the Path to Peace'”.