Religious Totalitarianism, Secular Totalitarianism, and Other Threats to International Religious Freedom

Apr 2, 2018 by

by Daniel Mark, Public Discourse:

Westerners should neither exaggerate our problems and forget how good we have it nor exaggerate our blessings and neglect the defense of religious freedom. We’re not inherently better or more deserving of religious freedom than anyone else in the world, and we should not take our good fortune for granted. The first in a two-part series.

One hundred and fifty years ago this June, the Edgardo Mortara case shocked the world. Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish boy in Italy, was taken from his family by the papal authorities and raised as a Catholic under the supervision of the pope. This was done under the law in Bologna, then part of the Papal States, after it was discovered that, five years earlier, the boy’s Catholic nanny had secretly baptized the one-year-old child when he fell ill and she feared he was going to die. The law required that this “Catholic” boy receive a Catholic education.

This story, a major sensation at the time that had vast repercussions, has garnered added attention lately because of coverage in First Things, long the country’s premier journal of religion and public life, of the recent publication of an English edition of Mortara’s memoirs. The article in First Things on the new translation got so much attention because the article’s author appeared to be justifying the abduction of the boy by the pope and his police. Or, if “justifying” is too strong a word, I’ll say “explaining sympathetically.” Needless to say, this brought some heat on First Things’ editor, who was criticized for publishing the piece.

It’s not my plan to discuss the Mortara case itself, the questionable article inspired by the memoir, or even the wisdom of publishing such a piece. But I do want to take, as my starting point for this lecture, the opening of the editor’s response to the criticism of his decision to print the article:

Read here

 

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