The Religious Dimension of Human Freedom
March 14, 2007
Pontifical University of Santa Croce
Speakers:
In the Press:
- “La dimensione religiosa della libertà umana e la 'società libera'” by Omar Ebrahime, Osservatorio Internazionale: Cardinale Van Thuân
- “La dimension religieuse de la liberté humaine : Congrès à Rome” Zenit News Agency
- “Suffering in China” by Elizabeth Lev, Zenit News Agency
- “Obstacles Plague Religious Freedom, Experts Say” Zenit News Agency, 2007-03-19
- “El laicismo, nueva amenaza para la libertad religiosa” Zenit News Agency
- “La dimensione religiosa della libertà umana” by Card. Julián Harranz
Cardinal Herranz was born in Spain in 1930. Studying in Madrid, he obtained doctorates in both canon law and medicine. Cardinal Herranz was ordained in 1955 in Madrid, taught at the University of Navarre and was actively involved in the work of the Second Vatican Council. In 1983, Cardinal Herranz was appointed secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law. He was made bishop of the titular diocese of Vertara in 1990. From 1994- 2007, he presided as president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts for the Roman Curia, where he was responsible for advising the Vatican and the Pope on matters of church law. Pope John Paul II elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2003. Cardinal Herranz is on the editorial boards of the journals Studi Cattolici and Ius Canonicum and is considered one of the foremost experts in Canon law.
R.M.T. Schmid was educated in Munich, Madrid, Rome, and Oxford and is presently assistant professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. She has published on matters relating to church-state conflicts, from medieval political thought to the problem of same-sex unions. At Oxford University, she tutored in philosophy and convened the Becket Institute Seminars at St Hugh's College during which, uniquely for Oxford at the time, she brought together scholars from around the world to discuss religious freedom.
With the election of Benedict XVI, Schmid returned to Rome to set up the Istituto Becket, a research centre devoted to the analysis of contemporary church-state conflicts. As a branch of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the institute explores ways beyond the conventionally academic to educate a wider public about religious freedom. Schmid has co-written and produced a television documentary on religious liberty in Turkey and is currently engaged in a similar project on China.
Fr. Bernardo Cervellera is a missionary of the Pontificial Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). He is also a journalist and he is in charge of the news agency Asia News , one of the most respected sources on political, economic and religious matters in Asia. From 1995 to 1997 he taught History of Western Civilization at Peking (Beida) University and from 1997 to 2002 he was the Director of Fides , the Vatican's international news agency. Fr. Cervellera writes for the Catholic newspaper Avvenire and contributes to other newspapers and televised news programs on international politics. Among his academic publications is the book China Mission: The Empire between Market and Repression .
