Editing Dignitatis humanae (section)

=={{anchor|Society of St. Pius X critique}}Traditionalist Catholic reception==
Archbishop [[Marcel Lefebvre]] cited this document as one of the fundamental reasons for his difficulties with the Second Vatican Council. It remains a focus for attacks from Traditionalists in the 21st century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Egan|first1=Philip A.|title=Philosophy and Catholic Theology: A Primer|date=2009|publisher=Liturgical Press|isbn=9780814656617|pages=56|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-gmvvzTWIX8C&pg=PA56|language=en}}</ref> The Vatican's position that the SSPX must acknowledge ''Dignitatis humanae'' and ''[[Nostra aetate]]'' as authoritative remained {{as of|2017|April|lc=y}} a key point of difference between the two.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pope Francis' Approval of SSPX Marriages Offers Hopeful Step to Unity|url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pope-francis-approval-of-sspx-marriages-offers-hopeful-step-to-unity|work=National Catholic Register|date=17 April 2017}}</ref>

The Society of St. Pius X criticized how ''Dignitatis humanae'' approached religious freedom with an argument from history:  
{{Quote|The saints have never hesitated to break idols, destroy their temples, or legislate against pagan or heretical practices. The Church&nbsp;– without ever forcing anyone to believe or be baptized&nbsp;– has always recognized its right and duty to protect the faith of her children and to impede, whenever possible, the public exercise and propagation of false cults. To accept the teaching of Vatican II is to grant that, for two millennia, the popes, saints, Fathers and Doctors of the Church, bishops, and Catholic kings have constantly violated the natural rights of men without anyone in the Church noticing. Such a thesis is as absurd as it is impious.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sspx.org/en/religious-liberty-contradicts-tradition|title=Religious liberty contradicts Tradition|date=December 3, 2012|website=District of the USA}}</ref>}}

On the contradictions some see between ''Dignitatis humanae'' and [[Pope Pius IX]]'s ''[[Syllabus of Errors]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.sspx.org/sspx_faqs/q6_vaticanII.htm |title= What Are Catholics to Think of Vatican II? |access-date= 3 May 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110307190118/http://www.sspx.org/sspx_faqs/q6_vaticanII.htm |archive-date= 7 March 2011 |url-status= dead }}</ref> Brian Mullady has argued that:
{{Quote|the religious freedom condemned in the ''Syllabus of Errors'' refers to religious freedom looked at from the point of view of the action of the intellect, or freedom respecting the truth; whereas the [[freedom of religion]] guaranteed and encouraged by ''Dignitatis humanae'' refers to religious freedom looked at from the point of view of the action of the will in morals. In other words, those who see in these different expressions a change in teaching are committing the fallacy of univocity of terms in logic. The terms "freedom" refer to two very different acts of the soul.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Brian Mullady|title=Religious Freedom: Homogeneous or Heterogeneous Development?|journal=The Thomist|url=http://www.thomist.org/jourl/1994/941aMull.htm|year=1994|volume=58|pages=93–108|doi=10.1353/tho.1994.0044|s2cid=171194888|access-date=3 May 2011|archive-date=13 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313172455/http://www.thomist.org/jourl/1994/941aMull.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}