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| Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI |
The proper
role for a believing Christian to play in public and political life has always
been a complicated question, even more so now with political structures that
are both democratic and pluralistic. We
need to apply our personal judgment in determining how to act in specific
situations, but those judgments must be informed and guided by the moral law
and the teaching of the Church. One
teaching document that has been enormously helpful to me in choosing my course
is the Doctrinal Note On Some Questions Regarding The Participation Of Catholics In
Political Life [text here], published November 2002 with the authorization of Pope
(now Saint) John Paul II, an under the name of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger , then
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (now Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI).
The
Doctrinal Note, despite its narrow focus (it’s only about eight pages long) is
a wonderfully rich yet concise discussion, as one would expect from Joseph
Ratzinger. It’s worth a much fuller
treatment than I can give it today (I may address that in the future), but
right now I want to look at just a couple of points as a sort of follow-up to
my post last week about the Maine State Republican Convention [link].
First of
all, participating in public and political life is a good thing:
It is commendable that
in today’s democratic societies, in a climate of true freedom, everyone is made
a participant in directing the body politic. Such societies call for new and
fuller forms of participation in public life by Christian and non-Christian
citizens alike . . . The life of a democracy could not be productive without
the active, responsible and generous involvement of everyone, “albeit in a
diversity and complementarity of forms, levels, tasks, and responsibilities”. (sec.
1, citations omitted)
As Catholic Christians, however, we have a
particular mission to fulfill, a “proper task”:
By fulfilling their
civic duties, “guided by a Christian conscience”, in conformity with its
values, the lay faithful exercise their proper task of infusing the temporal
order with Christian values, all the while respecting the nature and rightful
autonomy of that order, and cooperating with other citizens according to their
particular competence and responsibility. (sec. 1, citations omitted)
In other words, we need to recognize our mission to
be Salt and Light to a world in desperate need of the Truth (see Matthew
5:13), while at the same time respecting the freedom of those who might
disagree.
The
Doctrinal Note goes on to say that such involvement on our part in not only
good, but is in fact essential if democratic governance is to survive:
At the same time, the
Church teaches that authentic freedom does not exist without the truth. “Truth
and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery.”
In a society in which truth is neither mentioned nor sought, every form of
authentic exercise of freedom will be weakened, opening the way to libertine
and individualistic distortions and undermining the protection of the good of
the human person and of the entire society. (sec. 7, citations omitted)
This last point also indicates the limits
of politics and political systems, and actually reminds me of something John
Adams once said. As it happens, my son
and I were listening to a recorded version of David McCullough’s excellent biography
of Adams while travelling to and from the convention last week. Adams lived a fascinating life: he was a
leader in the movement for American independence, a well-travelled diplomat in 18th century Europe, the
first Vice President of the United States under George Washington, and
Washington’s successor as President. He
was also a deeply religious man (although not, of course, Catholic) with solid
moral convictions who thought seriously and incisively about the nature of
government and the proper relationship between the government and the governed
(all of which he put into practice as the chief architect of the constitution
for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the world’s oldest written constitution
that is still in use).
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| The eminently quotable John Adams |
He was,
in addition to all that, an outspoken man of considerable wit. One of my favorite Adams quotes comes from
his legal defense of the British soldiers on trial for shooting Bostonians in
the Boston Massacre. Said Adams: “Facts
are stubborn things.” More to the point
of this essay, in reference to the Constitution of the United States he said:
“Our constitution was made only for the government of a moral and religious
people. It is wholly inadequate for the
government of any other.” While Adams
believed that a republic is the form of government most suited to the dignity
of men, and that the republic established by the U.S. Constitution was the best
the world had yet seen, such a system could not succeed if those who were participating
in it were more interested in feeding their appetites than in pursuit of the
good, the true and the beautiful. True
freedom, both the Church and Adams agree, is only possible for people who know,
and who have been formed in, the Truth.
And that
leads us to the limits of politics and government. Our actions as citizens in a republic are
guided by, and in that sense subordinate to, our properly formed consciences;
likewise, the policies of the government are subject to a higher moral law. If our consciences are not properly formed,
no law can make us good (I approach this idea from a slightly different angle
in my post “Hidden Law: Society And The Church” [link]). At best, we can hope to encourage good
behavior by providing incentives for it, and discourage bad behavior by
providing disincentives. And when you
have a large number of people with improperly formed consciences combined with
government incentives to bad behavior, you face societal and political
break-down.
What
that means for us is that our first and most important task is to be the best
Catholic Christians we can be, before we cast a vote or sign a petition. To the degree that we create a more Christian
society, we make possible a more just government. We should approach direct
political action with the understanding that whatever we do politically (and not,
certainly, to subordinate our consciences to majority opinion or the party
platform), it is guided by, and in service to, the Higher Truth. Government can
do many good and essential things: provide for a common defense, nurture a
secure environment for civil society to flourish, build and maintain
infrastructure, help alleviate the temporary effects of poverty and abuse. As
Christians we have to know, however, that only Jesus Christ can bring about the
kingdom of God.
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