Opinions about the relationship between religion and politics abound. Some argue that religion should not influence politics; that politics are to be left to politicians; as if politicians were amoral human beings.
On the other hand, several religions, in both religious and secularised societies, whether having democratic or dictatorial systems, maintain that the religious values of truth, justice, solidarity, should enlighten and inform political action.
In a democracy, it is difficult for Church leaders to engage in public deliberation on issues that fall under the description of “political” but it is not impossible and certainly not forbidden.
But what preoccupies me more is the silence of religion leaders, religious organisations, prayer groups and so on, who have, for pragmatic reasons – though well-intentioned – accepted that politico-religious discussion causes division in the religious groups themselves.
Many consider themselves spiritual, or at least religious, but are not ready to stand up and be counted. Justice is often ignored under the cover of charity.
Pope Francis, in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, constructed a Weberian typology of the main social actors in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The first type – “an injured man lay on the roadside” – is stripped of his clothes, beaten, and half dead.
The second type consists of “a priest and Levite. They saw the man and passed by on the other side, not heeding ‘their interior summons to act as neighbours’.” They were concerned with their duties, their social status, their professional position within society. The injured, abandoned man was a distraction. He was a ‘Mr Nobody’, irrelevant in their scheme of things.
The third type is the “Good Samaritan [who] transcended these narrow classifications”. He was a foreigner free of any social status. Yet, he suspended his voyage to help injured man.
We should ask: where do I/my association fit in this typology?
We should ask: where do I/my association fit in this typology?
Last Sunday, Pope Francis urged youths to “be the critical conscience of society. Don’t be afraid to criticise! We need your criticism... Be free in criticism. Be passionate about truth, so that, with your dreams, you can say: ‘My life is not captive to the mindset of the world: I am free, because I reign with Jesus for justice, love and peace!’” So Catholic associations and prayer groups should never be a “politics-free zone”.
The 1971 synod points out that “action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us ‘as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel’, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation”.
Pope Francis disapproves assertions such as “everything is broken”, “it can’t be fixed”, or “what can I do?”. In this, he sees seeds of disillusionment and despair. “Plunging people into despair closes a perfectly perverse circle: such is the agenda of the invisible dictatorship of hidden interests that have gained mastery over both resources and the possibility of thinking and expressing opinions.”
There is no charity without justice. Isn’t it time we Catholics examined our conscience on this?