835. Is freedom of conscience the natural consequence of freedom of thought?

"Conscience is an inner thought that belongs to man, like all his other thoughts."

836. Has man the right to set up barriers against freedom of conscience?

"No more than against freedom of thought, for God alone has the right to judge the

conscience. If man, by his laws, regulates the relations between men and men, God, by the laws of nature, regulates the relations between men and God."

837. What is the effect of the hindrances opposed to freedom of conscience?

"To constrain men to act otherwise than as they think, and thus to make hypocrites of them. Freedom of conscience is one of the characteristics of true civilisation and of progress."

838. Is every honest belief to be respected, even when completely false?

"Every belief is worthy of respect when it is sincere, and when it leads to the practice of goodness. Blamable beliefs are those which lead to the practice of evil."

839. Is it wrong to scandalise those whose belief is not the same as our own?

"To do so is to fail in charity, and to infringe on freedom of thought."

840. Is it an infringement of the freedom of conscience to place hindrances in the way of beliefs that are of a nature to cause social disturbance?

"You can only repress action; belief is inaccessible."

The repression of the external acts of a belief, when those acts are injurious to others, is not an infringement of the freedom of conscience, for such repression leaves the belief itself entirely free.

841. Ought we, out of respect for freedom of conscience, to allow of the propagation of pernicious doctrines, or may we, without infringing upon that freedom, endeavour to bring back into the path of truth those who are led astray by false principles?

"Most certainly you not only may, but should, do so; but only by following the example of Jesus, by employing gentleness and persuasion, and not by resorting to force which would be worse than the false belief of those whom you desire to convince. Conviction cannot be imposed by violence."

842. All doctrines claiming to be the sole expression of the truth, by what signs can we recognize the one which has the best right to call itself such?

"The truest doctrine will be the one which makes the fewest hypocrites and the greatest number of really virtuous people – that is to say, of people practising the law of charity in its greatest purity and in its widest application. It is by this sign that you may recognise a doctrine as true; for no doctrine, of which the tendency is to make divisions and demarcations among the children of God, can be anything but false and pernicious."