In recent years, Catholic bishops in the United States have adopted religious liberty as one of their signature issues, largely in response to objections to contraception provisions in the Affordable Care Act that, they say, require Catholic institutions to violate their religious beliefs.
After publicly supporting this cause at the White House Wednesday, Francis gave another — although more implicit — vote of confidence for their efforts during his speech at Independence Hall Saturday. But he looked at religious freedom through a lens of tolerance and diversity, not neuralgic social issues.
American bishops have argued that the religious freedom precepts of the US Constitution grant more than the right to worship (or not) however one chooses; they believe it extends to the totality of one’s life. In addition to the contraception concerns, they say the legalization of gay marriage presents new challenges, such as providing insurance benefits to married same-sex couples.
Speaking in Spanish at the lectern used by Abraham Lincoln to deliver the Gettysburg Address, Francis seemed to endorse this interpretation of religious freedom, even if he didn’t weigh in on the specific examples, saying it “transcends places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families.”