Social Doctrine of the Church: Freedom

Freedom is the highest sign in man of his being made in the divine image and, consequently, is a sign of the sublime dignity of every human person...The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person (Compendium, 199; emphasis in original).

But this freedom is not unlimited. We must surely have it, or our ability to live truly human lives, and our ability to attain to our ultimate end, will be impaired. We must be free to act as human beings. But we must exercise our freedom within limits.

Far from being achieved in total self-sufficiency and the absence of relationships, freedom only truly exists where reciprocal bonds, governed by truth and justice, link people to one another (ibid).

This is so because we are created not to be lone rangers or absolute individualists. To the contrary, "It is not good that the man is alone" (Gn. 2:18). We need people. That being the case, we must exercise our freedom responsibly, and for the good of others as well as ourselves, all out of love for God.