Catholic Churchs Involvement In The Temporal Sphere Religion Essay

I hope this missive finds you good. I was concerned the other twenty-four hours when I saw you after Mass and you commented how disquieted you were at the Church ‘s engagement on political and economic affairs. To be honest, I was a spot surprised at how angry you seemed to be. If I may cite you I believe this is what you said: “ The Church should non be lodging its olfactory organ in political affairs. That is non the occupation of bishops, Catholic Popes and theologists. They should go forth that to existent experts is such affairs. No more of these infernal encyclicals. ” Sally, you are a good well-thought-of member of this parish community and your engagement in local political relations is surely admirable and so I think, as the curate, a response to your remark is in order. You surely take the societal inquiries of our twenty-four hours earnestly ; if non you would non hold entered political relations. Well, the Church, like yourself, besides takes the societal inquiries of the twenty-four hours really earnestly and has done so from the beginning.

Jesus himself was put to decease by the Roman political machine because he preached about the Kingdom of God which could hold been perceived as an insult to the Roman governments. His decease was non a private event but a public one. The life and decease of Jesus had obvious political and societal deductions since it gave rise to a motion that continues to impact the lives of 1000000s of people around the universe, including yours: the Church. A quotation mark by writer Richard Gaillardetz entitled The Ecclesiological Foundations of Modern Catholic Social Teaching provides some historical informations on why the Church has and continues to “ tamper ” in societal issues. It reads: “ Catholic Christianity holds that the life and instruction of Jesus Christ has public significance and carries with it deductions for societal constructions and for the behavior of work forces and adult females populating in society. Even when many Christians in the 2nd and 3rd centuries adopted an adversarial stance toward the larger society, they maintained their strong belief that the pattern of the Christian religion had concrete societal effects. ” ( 72 ) I think it does us well to retrieve that the Gospel is non received or worked through in a vacuity. It can non be lived or proclaimed apart from the many jobs in the universe today which inflict it with great anguish.

Your defeat over the function of the Church in the universe and what does that entail is every bit old as Christianity itself. In the 3rd century, one of the great Fathers of the Church, Tertullian posed this inquiry: “ What does Jerusalem hold to make with Athens? ” In other words, what if anything, does faith hold to state to the secular universe? Tertullian ‘s reply was in the negative: nil! But in our twenty-four hours, the reply is non so simple. We do draw a bead on to state something to Athens. The function of the Church in this instance can be seen as a span between the temporal and the sacred. To do the universe a better topographic point we must prosecute the secular universe, non withdraw from it.

Surely religious affairs can non be forgotten, but being a voice for the hapless and powerless is besides portion of the Church ‘s mission. Jesus bid to his adherents of “ Preach the Gospel to all states ” implies a certain engagement in the secular personal businesss of work forces and adult females. Pope Paul VI expressed this really good in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi. Paul writes:

Hence, when prophesying release and tie ining herself with those who are working and enduring for it, the Church is surely non willing to curtail her mission merely to the spiritual field and disassociate herself from adult male ‘s temporal jobs. Nevertheless she reaffirms the primacy of her religious career and refuses to replace the announcement of the Kingdom by the announcement of signifiers of human release ; she even states that her part to release is uncomplete if she neglects to proclaim redemption in Jesus Christ. ( # 34 )

As the Pope makes clear the Church must keep a healthy balance between her temporal and religious responsibilities. Above all, all the Church ‘s actions must be informed by our lived religion in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sally, I would besides wish to do clear that the Church ‘s societal instruction is non meant to overthrow the political and economic domain which justly belongs to the personal businesss of work forces and adult females in the secular sphere. The Church does non desire to enforce solutions to societal and economic jobs but instead to suggest options when deemed suited to make so. The Second Vatican Council ‘s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World speaks rather explicitly about this affair. It reads: “ In their proper domains, the political community and the Church are reciprocally independent and self government. Yet, by a different rubric, each serves the personal and societal career of the same human existences. This service can be more efficaciously rendered for the good of all, if each works better for wholesome common cooperation, depending on the fortunes of clip and topographic point. ” ( # 76 )

The Church does non wish to conflict on what is decently the function of the province in its ain personal businesss. But the Church must hold a voice. A hushed Church is non good for either the Church or society. As your ain engagement in the Church indicates, the Church does hold something valuable to offer. If non, Sally, you would non be a member of this parish and rather involved in many parish activities.

The Church can non proclaim the Gospel, which is her primary responsibility, without turn toing the pressing issues of our twenty-four hours. In 1971, the World Synod of Bishops issued a papers entitled Justice in the World. It is for many, one of the most of import post-Vatican II paperss covering with justness of all time issued. It ‘s most of import statement compactly explains the principle of the Church ‘s engagement in the issues of justness, political relations and economic affairs. It proclaims: “ Action on behalf of justness and engagement in the transmutation of the universe to the full appear to us as a constituent dimension of the sermon of the Gospel or, in other words, of the Church ‘s mission for the salvation of the human race and its release from every oppressive state of affairs. ” ( Chapter 1 )

In other words, if the Church does non prosecute the universe, so her service to humanity is badly limited. As the Introduction to Justice in the World provinces Christ came to proclaim “ the Good News to the hapless, freedom to the oppressed, and joy to the afflicted. ” ( Chapter 1 ) The Church can make no lupus erythematosus. John Coleman in his book An American Strategic Theology reinforces this impression. He writes: “ Liberation from constructions of unfairness is progressively seen as both the pre-condition of evangelization and its effectual effect. For the Church ‘s mission to release from structural wickedness is paramount to the credibleness of the Gospel ‘s announcement of a new creative activity in Christ. ” ( 9 )

Sally, I did non desire to overpower you with a bombardment of commendations from assorted Church paperss and other beginnings, but I thought it necessary in order to inform you of our rich heritage in respects to the Catholic Church ‘s engagement in the temporal sphere. As a faithful Catholic, I am certain that you bring into your political work the faith tradition that has been handed down to you by the Church. This is the same religion which has nurtured countless of others who in bend, inspired by this religion, have gone out to function the universe. I would include you in that figure. You have served and go on to function in an model manner this parish and community which reflects the values of the Gospel which is obvious you have made your ain. Surely, I am ever available, if you would wish to speak more about this with me in deepness.

Sincerely in Christ,