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Timeline: Religious liberty

Key moments in the traditionalist Catholic world — councils and documents, communities and their founders, media launches and controversies — each with its sources.
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2026

  1. Viganò says Leo XIV's Élysée speech promotes the 'exact opposite of the Magisterium'

    Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declared excommunicated for schism in 2024, posted a critique on X of Leo XIV's 25 September address at the Élysée Palace, which LifeSiteNews republished. He objected to the speech's favourable references to Enlightenment-era thinkers in connection with human rights and to its treatment of France's motto liberté, égalité, fraternité.

    SourcesArchbishop Viganò: Leo XIV promotes 'exact opposite of the Magisterium' (LifeSiteNews (republishing a statement first posted on X by Archbishop Viganò))Apostolic Journey to France: Meeting with the Authorities, Civil Society and… (The Holy See (vatican.va))

1965

  1. Vatican II promulgates Dignitatis humanae, the Declaration on Religious Freedom

    At the Council's last public session, Paul VI promulgated the Declaration on Religious Freedom alongside the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes. The declaration grounds the right to religious freedom in the dignity of the human person and holds that it should be recognised in civil law; a 2019 International Theological Commission document describes it as real progress in the Church's understanding of relations between Church and state.

    SourcesTo participants in the Congress on Secularism and Religious Freedom marking… (Holy See)Conclusion of the II Vatican Council: Speech at the last public session… (Holy See)Gaudium et spes (Holy See)Religious Freedom for the Good of All. Theological approaches and contemporary… (International Theological Commission (Holy See))