John Courtney Murray was one of the most significant American Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. His writings on pluralism and the “American experiment” helped overcome nativist doubts about the place of Catholics in American democracy. In the wider Church, he helped overcome ancient doubts about the separation of Church and state and paved the way for a sea change in the Church’s attitude to religious freedom.  

Outwardly, his life lacked drama. He joined the Jesuits at the age of sixteen, earned a doctorate in theology, and taught for thirty years at a Jesuit seminary. In the late 1940s he wrote a series of groundbreaking essays arguing that the American traditions of pluralism and religious liberty were not only compatible with Catholicism but were a fitting reflection of the Catholic teaching on human dignity and freedom. The separation of Church and state was an ideal that liberated the Church to pursue its genuine religious mission. Such views departed from long-standing attitudes in the Church, and Murray was for some years silenced by the Vatican.  

As an advisor to Cardinal Spellman, he attended the Second Vatican Council where he was entrusted with drafting the council’s historic document on religious freedom, finally released in December 1965. It is widely acknowledged that this document was the principal contribution of the American Church to Vatican II. Indeed, it was the contribution of John Courtney Murray to Catholic teaching. Thus he lived to see the vindication of his life’s work. He died on August 16, 1967.  

“The human person has a right to religious freedom.” —Declaration on Religious Freedom