Description

After two years of anti-COVID-19 policies, an international group of Catholic scholars and lawyers gathered in Rome under the auspices of the International Catholic Jurists Forum to reflect on how society has handled the crisis in the fields of law, politics and religion. The purpose of the meeting was to highlight what needs to be done in the future to better safeguard subsidiarity, fundamental human rights, especially freedom of religion and conscience, expression, assembly and movement as well as democratic processes per se and the unity of family life. Scholars and jurists, authors of this book, discussed how the pandemic has affected the functioning of Western political systems, how it has changed our thinking about democracy, and how it has affected the life of the Church.

The publication of this book comes at a time when United Nations Member States are set to complete negotiations on the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Treaty, and on the WHO International Health Regulations. Both documents raise a number of concerns related to the global biosecurity governance regime that is envisioned and the correlative limits on fundamental human rights that it entails. This book offers an examination of a number of related issues and concerns that reflect upon and bravely engage the evidence to offer clear thinking for scientists, politicians, and clergymen in light of faith and right reason with respect for the natural moral law and for religious believers, with assistance from divine revelation.