Many Catholic friends of mine are seeking religious exemptions to the various Covid-19 mandates. Especially ones who either work from home can prove acquired immunity.
For them, notwithstanding the argument against infanticide - which is very strong, the argument against reason is antecedent.
When Pope John Paul II writes something like:
In the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, the principle that force predominates over reason was carried to the extreme. Man was compelled to submit to a conception of reality imposed on him by coercion, and not reached by virtue of his own reason and the exercise of his own freedom. This principle must be overturned and total recognition must be given to the rights of the human conscience, which is bound only to the truth, both natural and revealed. The recognition of these rights represents the primary foundation of every authentically free political order
It gives them pause, they are being told that they cannot use political or sociological arguments for not getting vaccinated, but this is an argument put forth by the Holy Father, promulgated to the entire world that rights of human conscience natural and revealed must be respected or else we're headed to ruin. It could be argued that the common good is served by standing up for reason over and above the common good of boosting numbers of vaccinated individuals. I could argue that all day long, but St. John Paul II bolsters my argument and phrases it in a perfect way I could never even dream of. I believe he was divinely inspired.
Now, for the purpose of my question. Do the Popes intend the faithful to assent to the truths they speak in their encyclicals as a matter of faith or as a matter of reason?