The article discusses the American Jesuit theologian John Courtney Murray’s influential approach to the problem of religious freedom. It is often argued that the Second Vatican Council vindicated the main arguments developed by Murray. However, as the American communio theologian David L. Schindler has shown, the conciliar fathers had good arguments not to accept Murray’s juridical approach in its entirety. In the first part, the article presents the main ideas of Murray’s conception of religious freedom. In its second part, following Karol Wojtyła and David L. Schindler, it shows fundamental flaws in Murray’s arguments. Therefore, the main purpose of the article is to show the distinctiveness of the Catholic approach to grounding of religious liberty when compared with the liberal tradition. The discussion of religious liberty enables us to see more deeply the human dignity which is the cornestone of the whole edifice of human rights.