“It Is Forbidden to Forbid”: Rebellion Against God Disguised as Liberation

In the turbulent 1960s, an entire generation rose up against established authorities, traditional values, and moral norms that had guided Western civilization for centuries. Amid this cultural upheaval, one phrase became the battle cry of many movements: “It is forbidden to forbid.” At first glance, it might seem like nothing more than youthful rebellion against authoritarian regimes or unjust civil laws. However, the depth of this slogan reveals something far more serious: a direct challenge to the very order established by God.

This phrase, so celebrated by intellectuals, artists, and revolutionaries of the time, was not merely aimed at governments or social conventions. It was a frontal attack on the ultimate authority: God’s Law. The rejection of parental authority, Christian morality, marriage, chastity, and ecclesiastical hierarchy was part of a broader cultural offensive that sought to abolish every limit placed on human desire. In other words, it wasn’t just society being defied, but God Himself—whose will was clearly revealed in the Ten Commandments and faithfully taught by His Holy Church since apostolic times.

The idea that any form of prohibition is oppressive denies the very notion of Good and Evil. If everything is permitted, then nothing is sacred. And if nothing is sacred, then the very concept of sin disappears. That was—and still is—the hidden goal behind slogans like this: the destruction of Christian conscience and the loving submission to the divine will. By preaching total “freedom,” the ideologues of this revolution sought, in truth, to free man from God, as if the creature could be fulfilled without the Creator.

But God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us commandments not to oppress us, but to protect, uplift, and sanctify us. His Law is an expression of love, guiding us toward true good and authentic freedom—not the freedom to do whatever we want, but the freedom to want what is right. True liberty lies in living according to the truth, not in rebelling against it.

The Church, faithful guardian of God’s Law, can never endorse this rebellion. She has always taught that there are objective limits to our actions, and that these limits, far from being chains, are like safe rails that lead the soul to Heaven. “It is forbidden to forbid” is, therefore, the motto of a humanity that rejects the gentle yoke of Christ, only to become enslaved to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Ultimately, this phrase summarizes the modern tragedy: the refusal to obey Him who is Truth. And when truth is rejected, chaos follows. A society that lives without God, without commandments, without just prohibitions, quickly plunges into violence, immorality, and despair.

May faithful and vigilant Catholics understand the true spirit behind this revolutionary slogan and not be seduced by its appearance of liberation. The greatest freedom is to be a servant of God. And contrary to what the rebels preach, “it is forbidden to forbid” is, in truth, the greatest prohibition of all: the prohibition to obey God.