Political Community, Church, and Secularism: A Catholic Perspective

Posted on Feb 2, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Nature of the Political Community

Society in Human Nature. Community Source: Human Nature -> God. Legitimate if it is compatible with human dignity, justice, and the common good. The human person is the end of the community and politics, not the means.

Church on Political Parties and Participation

  • Expression of a healthy social pluralism and a legitimate political dissent.
  • Critique of the growing subordination of politics to partisan and ideological interests rather than the common good.
  • Limitation of citizen influence in the electoral vote.
  • Limited chance of lay Catholics to embrace a political creed without confusing religion and politics.

Lay Perspective

  • Cultural and Christian Dualism.
  • Order of adjustment and connection of the two societies.
  • Independence and functional complementarity.
  • The union must be of service to the individual.

Secularism

Secularism = Separation

Leo XIII:

  • Denies the existence of the Church as a community of divine origin.
  • Establishes the exclusive domain of the state.
  • Deprives the rights of persons of the solid foundation that should support them.
  • Detains religion in the field of privacy.

Pio X:

  • The state does not owe anything to religion.
  • Denies the supernatural dimension of the person as if it did not concern the state.
  • Denies that the order of human life requires harmony between the two societies.

Vatican II Doctrine

  • Does not say anything new; the Church must put its trust only in those granted by divine power.
  • Gaudium et Spes: minimum of respect:
    • Preaching freedom.
    • Freedom to teach her social doctrine and issue a social judgment.
    • Everything that requires exercising their religious mission without hindrance.

State Religion

Recognizes its submission to a specific indoctrinated religion and laws to suit that religion. Clericalism Gallicanism

Non-Denominational Rating

  1. The Church does not understand it as something positive but values it as a new paradigm in society.
  2. There is a sign of hostility toward the Church.
  3. Does not imply anti-religious sentiment but may involve the promotion and development of religion.
  4. We must take into account the sociological reality of religion -> privilege that confession must be the majority.

Religious Freedom

Freedom to profess one’s religious beliefs without coercion is a fundamental right and must be approved by the state; it goes before the state itself.

Political Liberalism

  1. Liberalism corrupts the natural content of truth and has distorted the Christian concept of freedom.
  2. Gives the sense of freedom of the individual as the absolute decision and ultimate standard of conduct.
  3. Behind all this beats an areligion against God.

3 Degrees of Liberalism according to Leo XII

  1. Denies any divine authority over man, condemned atheism.
  2. Recognizes the existence of God, but He should not have any divine character (Deism).
  3. Accepts submission to a divine law revealed but only in private life.

Evolution of Political Liberalism in the 20th Century

We demonstrated the amorality of the liberal system; it seems that one can say who is right and wrong. It is the source of the decline of the political community and responsible for Legal positivism. In the twentieth century, the Church reaffirms its condemnation of the liberal doctrine and its system of doctrine but acknowledges prudent collaboration if understood as a historical movement.