Pope Francis often speaks through symbolic actions more than words, but on the question of religious liberty his extemporaneous words on the flight home from the U.S. underscored the meaning of an under-reported action while he was in the US.

His comments were in response to a question from ABC News reporter Terry Moran. Reuters reported the exchange with this headline: “Govt workers have right to refuse gay marriage licenses –pope.”

For once, the media seems to have gotten the point. Here is the entire exchange:

Terry Moran, ABC News:

Holy Father, thank you, thank you very much and thank you to the Vatican staff as well. Holy Father, you visited the Little Sisters of the Poor and we were told that you wanted to show your support for them and their case in the courts.

And, Holy Father, do you also support those individuals, including government officials, who say they cannot in good conscience, their own personal conscience, abide by some laws or discharge their duties as government officials, for example in issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. Do you support those kinds of claims of religious liberty?

Pope Francis:

I can’t have in mind all cases that can exist about conscientious objection. But, yes, I can say the conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right. It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right. Conscientious objection must enter into every juridical structure because it is a right, a human right. Otherwise we would end up in a situation where we select what is a right, saying ‘this right that has merit, this one does not.’ It (conscientious objection) is a human right.

It always moved me when I read, and I read it many times, when I read the Chanson de Roland when the people were all in line and before them was the baptismal font and they had to choose between the baptismal font or the sword. They had to choose. They weren’t permitted conscientious objection. It is a right and if we want to make peace we have to respect all rights.

Terry Moran, ABC News:

Would that include government officials as well?

Pope Francis:

It is a human right and if a government official is a human person, he has that right. It is a human right.

This is nothing new to those aware of the teaching of the Catholic Church and willing to read it plainly, without a political lens. A resource entitled The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church provides a good summary entitled “the Right to Conscientious objection.” It is accompanied by footnote references to the Bible, the Catholic Catechism and other pertinent church documents.

Here is the relevant passage:

Citizens are not obligated in conscience to follow the prescriptions of civil authorities if their precepts are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or to the teachings of the Gospel. Unjust laws pose dramatic problems of conscience for morally upright people: when they are called to cooperate in morally evil acts they must refuse.

Besides being a moral duty, such a refusal is also a basic human right which, precisely as such, civil law itself is obliged to recognize and protect. Those who have recourse to conscientious objection must be protected not only from legal penalties but also from any negative effects on the legal, disciplinary, financial and professional plane. (Par. 399)

Of course, this should help to shed light on Pope Francis’s unscheduled visit with the Little Sisters of the Poor during his time in Washington, D.C. This is a pope who speaks through his actions. It is unclear whether Pope Francis is aware of the ongoing plight of Kim Davis, the Rowan County Kentucky Clerk who, rather than being legally accommodated, was jailed for her conscientious objection to giving marriage licenses to homosexual and lesbian partners. But obviously his words apply directly to her situation.

Popes, including Pope Francis, often speak indirectly in such situations, to avoid weighing in one side of a partisan dispute. But when it comes to religious liberty for everyone, including government workers, Pope Francis could not have spoken more loudly and clearly, in word and in deed.