Earlier this month, I sat down for an interview with First Things Magazine’s Senior Editor Mark Bauerlein on the state of religious liberty in America today. Our wide-ranging discussion covered topics like religious accommodations, the HobbyLobby case,church autonomy, and how America’s changing religious culture influences our law. Mark and I also discussed the Center for Law and Religion and its many programs, particularly our newest endeavor, the Tradition Project.
You can view the video on the First Things site, here.
For those who are interested, the Hudson Institute has posted the audio from last week’s panel (above), “Genocide and Crimes against Humanity.” I was one of the presenters, along with Sarkis Boghjalian (Aid to the Church in Need) and Michael La Civita (Catholic Near East Welfare Association). Fr. Benedict Kiely moderated. The audio link is available here (first link).
UPDATE: Video is now available at the Hudson website.
For those who might be interested, the Lanier Theological Library has made available a video of my lecture last month, “Religious Freedom for Mideast Christians: Yesterday and Today.” In the lecture, I discuss the history of the Mideast’s Christian communities, their persecution today, and what Americans can do about it.
The video is below. Thanks again to Mark Lanier and everyone at the library for hosting me!
The Lanier Theological Library in Houston has posted a video of a panel on religious liberty that took place at the library earlier this month. Among other subjects, the panel addressed the rise of contemporary Islamism, the treatment of Christians in the Mideast, the prevalence of Islamic-law arbitration in Europe and the US, and the legality of American drone strikes on American citizens affiliated with Islamist groups. I participated in the panel, along with Mark Lanier (Founder, Lanier Theological Library), Dean Michael Simons (St. John’s), Professor James Hoffmeier (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), and Fr. Mario Arroyo (Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston). Take a look.
Here are the videos from June’s conference, “International Religious Freedom and the Global Clash of Values,” which the Center for Law and Religion co-hosted in Rome, together with the St. John’s Center for International and Comparative Law and the Faculty of Law at Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA):
Introduction by Michael Simons, Dean of St. John’s University School of Law
Introduction by Angelo Rinella, Dean of the Faculty of Law at LUMSA
Keynote by Thomas Farr, Director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center
Pasquale Annicchino, Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute
Heiner Bielefeldt, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
Hon. Ken Hackett, United States Ambassador to the Holy See
Francisca Pérez-Madrid, Professor of Law at the University of Barcelona
Marco Ventura, Professor of Law at KU Leuven and the University of Siena
Roberto Zaccaria, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Florence
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law
Olivier Roy, Joint Chair of the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute
Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute
Conference Conclusion by Giuseppe Dalla Torre, Rector of LUMSA
Pope Francis opened our conference in Rome last week with a statement on religious liberty and the persecution of Christians. He reflected on the place of religious liberty in Catholic thought and decried religious discrimination across the world, particularly against Christians.
Pope Francis Greets Conference Participants (News.va)
The Pope’s remarks came at a special audience at the Vatican for participants in the conference, “International Religious Freedom and the Global Clash of Values,” which the Center for Law and Religion co-sponsored with the St. John’s Center for International and Comparative Law and the Department of Law at the Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta. Referring to the Second Vatican Council’s declaration, Dignitatis humanae, the Pope argued that people require religious freedom in order to be fully human:
“Every human is a ‘seeker’ of truth on his origins and destiny,” the Pope said. “In his mind and in his ‘heart,’ questions and thoughts arise that cannot be repressed or stifled, since they emerge from the depths of the person and are a part of the intimate essence of the person. They are religious questions, and religious freedom is necessary for them to manifest themselves fully.”
He called religious freedom “a fundamental right of man.” It is “not simply freedom of thought or private worship,” but “the freedom to live according to ethical principles, both privately and publicly, consequent to the truth one has found.”
“Legal systems, at both national and international level, are therefore required to recognize, guarantee and protect religious freedom, which is a right intrinsically inherent in human nature.”
Religious freedom is also “an indicator of a healthy democracy” and “one of the main sources of the legitimacy of the state,” the Pope continued.
Nowadays, international and domestic law protect religious freedom. Notwithstanding this protection, however, religious discrimination continues. In fact, Pope Francis noted, 1700 years after the Edict of Milan, Christians worldwide suffer disproportionate discrimination and persecution. “The persecution of Christians today is even more virulent than in the first centuries of the Church,” he said, “and there are more Christian martyrs today than in that era.”
We’ll have a fuller discussion of the Pope’s statement when the Vatican releases an official English translation. Meanwhile, here’s a video report on the audience in English.
On June 22 in Rome, CLR co-hosted a conference, State-Sponsored Religious Displays in the US and Europe, with the Department of Law at Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA). Videos of the panels are now available below. Papers will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Catholic Legal Studies.
Conference Introduction
Silvio Ferrari (Università di Milano – Facoltà di Giurisprudenza)
Session 1: Cultural or Religious? Understanding Symbols in Public Places
Thomas C. Berg (U. of St. Thomas School of Law)
Carlo Cardia (Università di Roma Tre – Facoltà di Giurisprudenza)
Eduardo Gianfrancesco (LUMSA – Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza)
Francesco Margiotta Broglio (Università di Firenze – Facoltà di Scienze Politiche)
Session 2: The Lautsi Case and the Margin of Appreciation
Monica Lugato (LUMSA – Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza)
Marc O. DeGirolami (St. John’s U. School of Law)
W. Cole Durham, Jr. (Brigham Young U. Law School)
Session 3: State‐sponsored Religious Displays in Comparative Perspective
Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit)
Paolo Cavana (LUMSA – Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza)
Mark L. Movsesian (St. John’s U. School of Law)
Sophie C. van Bijsterveld (Tilburg U. School of Humanities)
Lectures from the 2012 Legal Theory Conference – “The Competing Claims of Law and Religion” – are now available online in audio and video format. Marc DeGirolami’s lecture, entitled “The Method of Tragedy and History Applied” is available here and Mark Movsesian’s lecture, entitled “Crosses and Culture: Public Religious Symbols in the U.S. and Europe” is available here (lecture begins at 35:15).
(UPDATE: A video of the panel discussion, “Religious and Secular Law,” can be viewed in the player below. This post was originally posted on October 11, 2011 – ARH)
I just participated in Forum 2000’s final law-and-religion panel, “Religious and Secular Law.” The panel was chaired by Anna Teresa Arco, the Chief Feature Writer for the Catholic Herald, who opened the panel with an erudite introduction to the topic. In my remarks, I argued that the relationship between secular and religious law will be a crucial issue in the years ahead. Religion is resurging around the world, and there will likely be many occasions of conflict between secular and religious law. I discussed two doctrinal examples from the United States: the ministerial exception, currently before the Court in Hosanna-Tabor, and restrictions on religious practice under Employment Division v. Smith. Czech Judge Ivana Hrdličková followed with a discussion of the interaction between Islamic and secular law in Europe, especially with regard to family law. Professor Luboš Krobáček, a scholar of Islamic civilization at Charles University in Prague, closed the panel with an overview of the different schools of Islamic law. – MLM
