The Catholic Church can tell its adherents how to behave, argues Padraic P. McGuinness , but must not force its creed on others. You're free to believe what we tell you to believe The Catholic Church can tell its adherents how to behave, argues Padraic P. McGuinness , but must not force its creed on others. The great problem facing those who have never belonged to the Catholic Church or have severed their connections with it is its continuing claim to interfere in their lives.
Liberty of conscience is that which the church still finds it difficult to come to terms with.
Certainly, as he has shown along with other biographers, the Polish Pope played an absolutely vital role in the collapse of communism, and the world owes him and his church enormous gratitude for that. Those Catholics who believe in the divine inspiration of their church also owe him a debt, since he has resisted the crumbling of Catholicism into a flabby kind of spiritualism dominated by the secular authoritarians of human rights. They can only do this by pretending that any choice that does not fit their morality is not a truly free choice. This is the first step on the road to theocratic government. I was brought up in the Catholic Church, but rejected both its claims and its authority, without losing respect for many of its achievements and personnel, years ago.