Florida Catholic | Bishop Wenski's Column

‘Responsible citizenship is a virtue’ and Catholic tradition

NOVEMBER 2, 2007

Oftentimes, when I, or one of my brother bishops speaks on a public policy issue — whether dealing with abortion, immigration, stem cell research, the war or any other “hot button issue” — we are accused of “meddling in politics.”

Sometimes, such accusations come from a misunderstanding of what separation of Church and State means. While the phrase “separation of Church and State” never occurs in the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment guaranteeing religious freedom was designed by the Founding Fathers to protect the Churches from undue State influence and control. At any rate, while secularists may want to sideline the Church and marginalize any faith-based discourse in public life, the founders never intended that the “non-establishment clause” separate religious faith from society.

Of course, others accuse us of “meddling in politics” when we do not agree with them on one issue or another. Anyone blindly loyal to a party — or to an ideological position — will be upset with the Church when she or her shepherds disagree with them. And since the Church has no “party,” she will disagree with one or the other, or both, on any number of issues. The English man of letters, G.K. Chesterton, once quipped about the partisan divisions of his own country: “The progressives want to keep on making mistakes; the conservatives don’t want to fix the mistakes already made.” Such an attitude can deafen partisans on either side of the political divide to the Church’s voice.

In Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue. Participation in the political process is a moral obligation. To say that Catholics should set their beliefs aside when exercising their political rights would be to deny Catholics the opportunity to make their own contribution to their fellow citizens of our understanding of the common good and the conditions necessary for human flourishing in our society. Politics is not about “imposing” one’s beliefs and values on others; it is, however, about making one’s proposals in the public forum that is our democratic process. And to say that Catholics should not listen to their shepherds who as teachers seek to form consciences certainly violates both the spirit and the letter of the First Amendment — not to mention that it also ignores Jesus’ words to his apostles: “He who hears you, hears me.”

Pope Benedict XVI writes in Deus Caritas Est, 28: “The Church is duty bound to offer, through the purification of reason and through ethical formation, her own specific contribution toward understanding the requirements of justice and achieving them politically.” Of course, this is no easy task: We are challenged to be principled without being ideological, to be political without being partisan, to be civil without being soft, and to be involved without being used. (cf. Faithful Citizenship, September 2003)

The Church does have a distinct and valuable role to play in the political order. First, the Church must educate its people and others of good will regarding its teachings and the responsibilities of the faithful. Much of what the Church says can be organized under several key themes: the life and dignity of the human person, the call to family, community and participation, rights and responsibilities of citizenship, an option for the poor and vulnerable, dignity of work and the rights of workers, solidarity and caring for God’s creation.

The Church properly analyzes issues for their social and moral dimensions — anything regarding the human person and his dignity is certainly within the purview of the Church who rightly measures public policy against Gospel values. This is not “meddling in politics” but a service of love — and to fail to speak with courage and coherency would be to fail in the charity we owe our neighbor.

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