Panorama of “Religious Liberty” Statue in Philadelphia by Andrey Bobrovsky (CC BY 3.0 Deed). Since its founding, the United States has had a unique national commitment to religious liberty, most notably exemplified in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Ratified in 1791, it serves as the primary basis for the nation’s legal recognition of religious…
silhouette of trees covered by fog by Paul Pastourmatzis on Unsplash. The United States Constitution, drafted in 1787, is a remarkable document. It is the oldest written and operating constitution in the world. There have been twenty-seven amendments to this text since its inception, from the original Bill of Rights, inclusive of the first ten…
“Mount Nebo” by Maya-Anaïs Yataghène / Wikimedia CC BY 2.0 The doctrine of subsidiarity is most closely associated with modern Roman Catholic Social Teaching, particularly as codified in the social encyclicals Quadragesimo Anno (1931) and Centesimus Annus (1991). In the latter document, Pope John Paul II defines subsidiarity as the principle that “a community of…