Relations between the Catholic Church and the state
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Separation of church and state in the history of the Catholic Church |
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The relations between the Catholic Church and the state have been constantly evolving with various forms of government, some of them controversial in retrospect. In its history, the Church has had to deal with various concepts and systems of governance, from the
Catholicism and the Roman Emperors
In the Christian era (more properly the era of the
Beginning with Edward Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire some historians have taken the view that Christianity weakened the Roman Empire through its failure to preserve the pluralistic structure of the state. Pagans and Jews lost interest and the Church drew the most able men into its organisation to the detriment of the state.[3]
The papacy and the Divine Right of Kings
The doctrine of the
During early medieval times, a near-monopoly of the Church in matters of education and of literary skills accounts for the presence of churchmen as their advisors. This tradition continued even as education became more widespread. Prominent examples of senior members of the church hierarchy who advised monarchs were Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in England, and Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin in France; prominent, devoutly Catholic laymen like Sir Thomas More also served as senior advisors to monarchs.
Besides advising monarchs, the Church held direct power in mediaeval society as a landowner, a power-broker, a policy maker, etc. Some of its
During the French Wars of Religion, the monarchomachs began to contest the divine right of kings, setting up the bases for the theory of popular sovereignty and theorizing the right of tyrannicides.
The French Revolution
The central principle of the medieval, Renaissance, and ancien régime periods, monarchical rule "by God's will", was fundamentally challenged by the 1789
At the same time, the revolution also challenged the theological basis of royal authority. The doctrine of popular sovereignty directly challenged the former divine right of kings. The king was to govern on behalf of the people, and not under the orders of God. This philosophical difference over the basis of royal and state power was paralleled by the rise of a short-lived democracy, but also by a change first from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy and finally to republicanism.
Under the doctrine of the divine right of kings, only the Church or God could interfere with the right of a monarch to rule. Thus the attack on the French absolute monarchy was seen as an attack on God's anointed king. In addition, the Church's leadership came largely from the classes most threatened by the growing revolution. The upper clergy came from the same families as the upper nobility, and the Church was, in its own right, the largest landowner in France.
The revolution was widely seen, both by its proponents and its opponents, as the fruition of the (profoundly secular) ideas of
In speaking of "the Church and the Revolution" it is important to keep in mind that neither the Church nor the Revolution were monolithic. There were class interests and differences of opinion inside the Church as well as out, with many of the lower clergy – and a few bishops, such as
As a large-scale landowner tied closely to the doomed
France after the Revolution
When
However,
The Church itself remained associated with the
Catholicism in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Following
However, towards the end of the eighteenth century a rapprochement began to develop between
Pius IX and Italian unification
Over the course of the 19th century,
Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII, responding to the rise of popular democracy, tried a new and somewhat more sophisticated approach to political questions than his predecessor Pius IX.
On May 15, 1891, Leo issued the encyclical Rerum novarum (Latin: "About New Things"). This addressed the transformation of politics and society during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. The document criticised capitalism, complaining of the exploitation of the masses in industry. However, it also sharply reproved the socialist concept of class struggle, and the proposed solution of eliminating private property. Leo called for strong governments to protect their citizens from exploitation, and urged Roman Catholics to apply principles of social justice in their own lives.
This document was rightly seen as a profound change in the political thinking of the Holy See. It drew on the economic thought of St Thomas Aquinas, who taught that the "just price" in a marketplace should not be allowed to fluctuate due to temporary shortages or gluts.
Seeking a principle to replace the threatening
Forty years later, the corporatist tendencies of Rerum Novarum were underscored by
The Church and the twentieth century
In the 20th century, the Catholic Church embraced a Christian Democratic outlook and promoted "free institutions, the welfare state, and political democracy".[6] The encyclicals Au Milieu des Sollicitudes and Graves de communi re of Pope Leo XIII from the late 19th century established the Church's official commitment to both Catholic social teaching and Christian democracy, which promoted democracy as the best type of governance as long as it worked to the "benefit the lower classes of society", promoted common good and rejected individualism in favor of communitarianism, and opposed what Leo XIII called "individualistic liberal" capitalism.[7][8]
In that century, the Church's writings on democracy were "directly read, read and commented upon" by Christian politicians, inspiring Christian democratic parties and movements in Europe and South America.
Croatia
In Croatia, Axis-aligned
- The Ustashimovement is based on the Catholic Religion. For the minorities, Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, we have three million bullets. A part of these minorities has already been eliminated and many are waiting to be killed. Some will be sent to Serbia and the rest will be forced to change their religion to Catholicism. Our new Croatia will therefore be free of all heretics, becoming purely Catholic for the future years.
Notice the absence of a mention of Bosnian Muslims. Unlike Serbs, they were considered Croatian brothers whose ancestors converted to Islam.
Interwar Zagreb lecturer Ivan Guberina wrote that the atmosphere in interwar and WW2 was full of bitter feelings of persecution from the Yugoslav government that Croats and Catholics felt. Serbian Orthodoxy was "unrelentingly forced upon the Greek Catholic population", the government "issued school texts often carried derogatory references to the Catholic Church and the person of the pope" and Catholics were "discriminated against in every department of the central government".[10]
The issue of
Archbishop Stepinac and the rest of the Catholic clergy in Croatia also cooperated with the
Ivan Grubišić, a Catholic priest and a member of the Croatian Parliament fought for termination or revision of the Treaties between the Republic of Croatia and the Holy See, which were deemed to unbalance the relations between the Church and the Croatian state.
Spain
As the Second Spanish Republic was established, the initial attitude of the Church was supportive - the Vatican recognised the new government as legitimate, and the Holy See "gave an order to all bishops within Spain to write a pastoral letter declaring the Republic as legitimate".[11] However, the relationship between the Church and the Spanish government quickly turned sour as the government enacted aggressive anti-clerical policies, such as forcefully dissolving the Jesuits and nationalizing the Church's possessions. The anti-clerical policies were condemned by the clergy, and were "wildly unpopular in all but the most anticlerical circles".[11] As the situation turned violatile and street violence in Spain continued to escalate, Catholic clergy urged the population to stay call, and the Cardinal Francisco Vidal y Barraquer strongly condemned calls for violent uprising against the government amongst monarchist and right-wing groups.[11]
Nicola Rooney argues that although support for the Francoist forces amongst Spanish clergy during the Spanish Civil War was mixed, "the regime had managed to exile a significant number of its opponents, thereby giving the illusion of unanimous support from the Church."[12] Many Catholic priests came to the defense of the Republic - Maximiliano Arboleya urged for peace and asked Spanish Catholics to remain loyal to the Republican regime, José Manuel Gallegos Rocafull stressed the need to preserve Spanish democracy and pressured the Republican government to police anti-clerical socialist militias, and many respected Catholic personalities spoke in favour of the Second Republic as well, such as Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo and José Bergamín.[13] According to Spanish historian Antonio Fernández Garcia, the greater part of the organized Church did not willingly cooperate with the Franco forces during the war.[13] Many Spanish priests, such as Leocadio Lobo of San Gínes denounced the Francoist cooperation with the fascist governments of Germany and Italy, and thus considered backing Franco incompatible with Catholic teachings.[13] Franciscan theologian Luis Sarasola Acarregui (1883-1942) claimed that "all Spanish Catholics - the most eminent ones - condemn the civil war, and have resolutely sided with the Government of the Republic",[13] while Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo concluded that "a sincere Christian apostolate is much more likely to succeed on the Popular Front than on the opposite side". The clergy was especially pro-Republican in the Basque provinces, where an overwhelming majority of the clergy endorsed the Republic; as the Basque people were known for being "among the most ardent Catholics in all of Spain", it made the Francoist forces difficult to present themselves as the Catholic option "when the most concentrated Catholic stronghold in Spain had declared itself for the Republic".[14]
On 14 September 1936, the issue of the civil war was addressed by the Vatican for the first time - Pope Pius XI made a speech in which he condemned communism as well as the horrors of war. The Pope condemned the part of the clergy that tried to justify the war, ordering them to "alleviate the suffering of the war" instead. According to Benjamin DeLeo, "the Pope said the exact opposite of what the Nationalists in the crowd wanted to hear", and the apparent lack of support by the Catholic Church dismayed the Nationalist forces.[14] The Vatican also did not recognise the Nationalist government until 1939.[15]
After the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Catholic Church was severely devastated; over a half of Spanish parishes had their churches burned or their priests murdered. In Catalonia, over one-third of Catholic priest had been murdered. Andrew Dowling wrote that by 1939, the "religious life was almost eradicated" in Catalonia. Most of religious events had to take place outside or in schools because of lack of religious building, while in some parts of Spain religious presence became non-existent.[16] It was in this atmosphere that the Church signed a Concordat with the new regime in 1953, although Vatican was reluctant to do so and forced significant concessions from the regime.[17] The Concordat was seen as an opportunity to avoid further anti-clerical violence or persecution, and was also influenced by the pro-Franco policy of the United States under President Eisenhower.[17]
Beginning in the 1950s, the Catholic Church grew critical of the Francoist regime.[18] In Catalonia, the church used its position to foster Catalan nationalism - while publishing in Catalan language was illegal under the Francoist regime, the Church was exempt from this ban thanks to the Concordat, which meant that "the only way that Catalanism could be expressed would be through the Church."[16] The Catholic clergy started publishing journals and preaching sermons in Catalan, which became a "launch-pad for a pre-political programme of a Catholic revival of cultural Catalanism."[16] Because of this, the Church soon became a base of anti-Francoist resistance in Catalonia; in 1957, an exile Catalan nationalist newspaper in Venezuela Solidaritat Catalana noted that "There is a strong tendency on the part of many Catholic sectors to adopt a combative attitude against the regime."[16] With the help of local clergy, Catholic churches served as shelters for illegal trade unions and anti-Francoist parties, as "the sanctity of the church, codified in Franco's 1953 Vatican Concordat, assured that the meeting would not be interrupted by the police".[19] According to Rooney, "members of clergy were to play a leading role in the opposition to the dictatorship"; this was particularly true for the Catholic clergy in "Basque Country and Catalonia, where the clergy were actively involved in regional nationalism, and also for those priests from Catholic worker organisations who took up the defence of striking workers".[12] As the opposition from the Catholic Church intensified, the Franco regime soon started acting against the clergy, and a prison for Catholic priests called Concordat Prison was created.[12] Hank Johnston and Jozef Figa also argue that in Spain, "the church was crucial in the nationalist and working-class wings of the anti-Francoist movement",[19] and the growing opposition to the dictatorship intensified in the 1960s thanks to Vatican II, which made the regime start "fining priests for their sermons, jailing members of the clergy, and considering the expulsion of a bishop, thereby risking the excommunication of the government".[18]
France
The pro-Catholic movement
According to John Hellman, "Not long before he died, Lenin told a French Catholic visitor that "only Communism and Catholicism offered two diverse, complete and inconfusible conceptions of human life".[20] This led Maurice Thorez of the French Communist Party to offer "an outstretched hand" to French Catholics in 1936, wishing "to achieve a tactical alliance to head off fascism in France and Europe and to promote social progress".[20] A large amount of French Catholics did enter a dialogue with the party, but to Thorez's surprise, "these Catholics were not, for the most part, the Catholic workers, clerks, artisans, peasants to whom Maurice Thorez had addressed his appeal, but rather Catholic philosophers, "social priests," journalists, and cardinals".[20] While Catholics were wary of the socialist concept of the revolution, and strongly opposed to the atheism of most socialist movements, "strong criticism of capitalism and economic liberalism was a persistent theme in episcopal pronouncements and Catholic literature".[20] The attempt of a Communist-Catholic unity in France is considered successful, as most French Catholics were opposed to fascism and when offered an alliance on grounds of anti-fascist unity, "saw the Communist offer as a religious and moral rather than political issue".[20]
Ireland
The Catholic Church in Ireland played a key role in uniting various strata of the Irish society, forging the unity that allowed Irish nationalism to become a mass movement.[21] The Church gained a reputation of a nationalist and anti-British force in late 19th and early 20th century, as it clashed with the British government and advanced Irish causes. Establishing its identity as a persecuted church that stood opposed to the British presence in Ireland, Catholicism became a source of the Irish identity.[21] As such, when Irish Free State was established in 1922, Catholic and nationalist values were "subscribed to by the vast majority of the population"; the Church had a profound influence on the legislature of the new Irish state. However, although the Church had a marked influence on both Irish state and its identity, "practical politics were, to a great extent, left to the laity under the general supervision of the hierarchy."[22]
Despite the fact that the Church was "overwhelmingly dominant" in 20th-century Ireland, the
Early nationalist government of the Free State concerned itself with administrative measures such as the police force (
In the Irish Free State, the Catholic social movements were "going from strength to strength", having an overwhelming amount of adherents in both the general society as well as the government itself.
Ireland remained a highly religious society until 1960s - as late as in the 1950s, the image of Ireland was still one of a Catholic society that "had preserved a purity of faith in the face of persecution and famine". On his visit to Ireland in 1950s, Archbishop Peter McKeefry praised Ireland as "a land of faith ... a faith that permeates every phase of personal, social and national life. It could be seen every moment of the day, be it in church, on a street car."[24] However, with the advent of secularism following the end of WW2, both the Church as well as the Irish society itself underwent changes and tilted in liberal direction. Starting in the 1960s, the Catholic Church would rapidly lose its influence on the Irish society - unlike in 1937, the government no longer sought the advice of the clergy on political matters, and even came close to openly defying the Church; while anti-Catholicism amongst the Protestant minorities had mostly faded away by 1960s, it was now replaced by anti-clericalism of liberal groups and movements.[25] However, the Church itself also liberalised thanks to Vatican II - the Church accepted the increasing secularization of the Irish society, and in 1959 Father Peter Connelly wrote: "... the Church ought not compromise her moral authority with the compulsions of civil law nor ought the State intrude into the private moral life unless ‘‘public morality’’ or ‘‘the public order’’ is being menaced. Civil law does not deal formally with sin."[24] In 1960s and 1970s, many Catholic bishops issued similar statements, clarifying that the Church expects the government to uphold Irish democracy rather than "uphold the Catholic moral order".[24] According to Louise Fuller of the National University of Ireland, by the time of the Second Vatican Council, Catholic ideology in Ireland became a democratic one that "emphasized love rather than adherence to rules and had a positive rather than a negative view of human nature."[24] John Henry Whyte writes that "Catholic social teaching remained very active but less ideological" and argues that the Church "became more concerned with the actual needs of people" and no longer sought to dominate various social fields such as education or healthcare, closely cooperating and coordinating its efforts with the state on these issues instead.[25] The Church also liberalised on social matters such as feminism, as the Irish "nuns came to challenge their subordinate role within the Church, criticized the patriarchal traditions of the Church and urged it to become more involved in the concerns of the poor".[25] As such, political Catholics shifted towards the left, with many embracing liberation theology or progressive Catholicism. Vatican II also urged the need for the Church to advocate for democracy above all else, even if at the cost of hitherto Catholic dominance in Irish society and politics, with Cardinal Cahal Daly writing: "The Catholic Church totally rejects the concept of a confessional State […] the Catholic Church seeks only the freedom to proclaim the Gospel […] We have repeatedly declared that we in no way seek to have the moral teaching of the Catholic Church become the criterion of constitutional change or to have the principles of Catholic faith enshrined in civil law."[25]
Elsewhere in Europe
The association of Roman Catholicism, sometimes in the form of the hierarchical church, sometimes in the form of lay Catholic organisations acting independently of the hierarchy, produced links to dictatorial governments in various states.
- In Austria, Engelbert Dollfuss turned a Roman Catholic political party into the single party of a one-party state. In rural Austria the Catholic Christian Social Party collaborated with the Heimwehr militia and helped bring Dollfuss to power in 1932. In June 1934, he produced his authoritarian constitution which stated "We shall establish a state on the basis of a Christian Weltanschauung". The Pope described Dollfuss as a "Christian, giant-hearted man ... who rules Austria so well, so resolutely and in such a Christian manner. His actions are witness to Catholic visions and convictions. The Austrian people, Our beloved Austria, now has the government it deserves".
- In fall of the Soviet Union, Poland became a multiparty democracy and several parties which professed to defend Catholicism were legalised, like Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność or Liga Polskich Rodzin.
Fascism
Commenting on the rise of fascism in interwar Europe,
Historians such as
In 1929, the Church banned books of a fascist journalist
Italy
The relationship between fascist Italy and the Catholic Church can be divided into three periods - prior to the March on Rome, the Church was hostile to the fascist movement and was openly denounced by the clergy as well as Catholic organisations.[33] After the fascist government was formed, relations were steadily improving as Mussolini sought to appease Rome and improve the public as well as foreign opinion of the regime, which eventually led to the Lateran Treaty of 1929. Starting in 1931, the Church was growing increasingly opposed to the regime, particularly in the context of its anti-clerical policies and bans of Catholic organisations such as the Azione Cattolica.[32] The Church became openly hostile towards the Italian fascist regime in mid-1930s, once it started cooperating with the German regime, acquiesced in the annexation of Austria in 1938 and implemented Racial Laws,[35] to which the Church was strongly opposed.[33] In 1938, Pius XI strongly condemned anti-Semitic laws and stated: "Christians are not permitted to take part in anti-Semitism. … Spiritually we are all Semites”; according to Emma Fattorini, Pius "concluded that the aims of fascism and the Catholic Church were incompatible".[36] Following the implementation of the racial laws, fascist informers remarked that "the clergy and the practising Catholics make clear that they deplore, as persecution, the measures aimed at the Jews".[37] The Church refused to recognise the Italian Social Republic in 1943, and used its privileged status to give shelter to anti-fascist activists.[38] The Catholic Church became a centre of clandestine anti-fascist resistance in Italy during World War II, which allowed Christian Democrats to emerge as the strongest force in the resistance as well as post-WW2 Italian politics.[39] Adrian Lyttelton argues that "the single most important national institution to make the transition from Fascism to democracy was the Catholic Church",[40] while Richard A. Webster notes that "in conditions of ever tighter totalitarian control, the Church was one of the few institutions in Italy that Fascism never penetrated".[41]
During the unstable period in Italy called Biennio Rosso, marked by strikes, protests and clashes between socialist groups and fascist Blackshirts, the Church was strongly critical of Italian fascists, and Catholic media such as the newspaper La Civiltà Cattolica referred to fascism as an evil and anti-Christian movement.[33] In this period, Catholic social and workers' movements established local control in most of Italy, especially in the northern Areas such as Veneto, Bergamo and Brescia; Catholics formed worker leagues, mutual-aid societies, cooperatives and rural banks. Catholic subculture was dominant in Italy as local priests, Catholic organisations and newspapers had constructed a "Catholic world". This Catholic subculture and organisations, especially Catholic trade unions that were associated with it, were known as "white" in contrast to "red" worker movements that followed socialism rather than Catholic social teaching or distributism. According to John M. Foot, the Catholic movement was staunchly anti-fascist and leaned towards the political left - Foot remarks that Catholic trade unions were often "more militant than those of the 'reds' and entered into violent conflict with the landowners or textile bosses".[42] As such, Catholics in the 1920s Italy were left-wing, largely immune to Blackshirt agitation and were ready to enter "workers' unity" alliances with socialist trade unions for the sake of anti-fascism. Local Catholic socialist leaders emerged, such as Romano Cocchi at Bergamo and Giuseppe Speranzini in Verona. The presence of such "Left-Catholics" was strong, and a strike organised by left Catholic unions in Verona gathered 150,000 'white' workers. Ultimately, no lasting alliance between the 'red' socialist and 'white' Catholic organisations was successful as both sides remained largely unwilling to cooperate despite their anti-fascist outlook. Socialist unions would often refuse to participate in strikes organised by white leagues, allowing local landowners to use the Socialist-Catholic split to their advantage and isolate trade unions from each other. Catholic newspapers such as L'Italia criticised 'red' unions for their neutrality, writing in 1919 that there was a "tight link between our red adversaries and the ruling class".[42] The PSI maintained a hostile attitude towards the Catholic Left - in 1920, Alfonso Leonetti stated that Catholic workers were a "true obstacle" to the revolution and equated them to fascist Blackshirts, arguing that the PSI would have to "fight the left-catholics with greater force than those on the right". Foot notes that only individual socialists such as Antonio Gramsci explored the prospect of an anti-fascist alliance with the Catholic left.[42] Catholic leagues and trade unions were condemned by the fascist press as "white Bolshevik" and "communist". Cladia Baldoli remarked that although no lasting alliances between the 'red' and 'white' organisations were made, Catholic organisations fiercely opposed the Blackshirts, and their protests were often "more radical than the ones employed by socialism, and were indeed remembered during Mussolini’s regime as forms of ‘White Bolshevism’."[43]
Germany
The division of Germans between Catholicism and Protestantism has figured into German politics since the
In
According to
Ludwig Maria Hugo was the first Catholic bishop to condemn membership in the Nazi party, and in 1931 Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber wrote that "[t]he bishops as guardians of the true teachings of faith and morals must issue a warning about National Socialism, so long as and insofar as it maintains cultural-political views that are not reconcilable with Catholic doctrine."[44] Cardinal Faulhaber's outspoken criticism of National Socialism gained widespread attention and support from German Catholic churches, and Cardinal Adolf Bertram called German Catholics to oppose National Socialism in its entirety because it "stands in the most pointed contradiction to the fundamental truths of Christianity".[46] According to the Sewanee Review, "Catholics were expressly forbidden to become registered members of the National Socialist party; disobedient Catholics were refused admission to the sacraments; groups in Nazi uniform and with Nazi banners were not admitted to church services".[45] The condemnations of Nazism by Bertram and von Faulhaber reflected the views of most German Catholics, but many of them were also disillusioned with the institutions of the Weimar Republic.[44][46]
According to Italian historian
Slovakia
During
Despite its Catholic and clerical nature, the Vatican was critical of the Slovak regime - Pope Pius XI discouraged clerical participation and support of the regime, and monsignor Domenico Tardini informed Tiso that "the Holy See does not look with pleasure" upon his appointment as the president of Slovakia. Wolff notes that "The Vatican consistently demonstrated its uneasiness as Catholic Slovakia drew further into the German web", and the Catholic hierarchy constantly clashed with Tiso and his government over its pro-German and fascist policies. The Church was concerned with "Nazi advances" that were implemented by the regime, and also sought to preserve its profound social influence. According to Wolff, "the ultimate test of strength between the Church and nazism in Slovakia centered upon the struggle over the fate of the country's Jewish population."[51] The Vatican strongly opposed anti-Semitic legislation that was systematically implemente in Slovakia; the "Jewish Code" based on the Nuremberg Laws introduced in German was declared contrary to Catholic principles - Cardinal Luigi Maglione issued an official protest to the law on behalf of the Vatican, writing that "it is with great sadness that the Holy See witnessed the promulgation of a law which was in open contrast to Catholic principles in an overwhelming Catholic country". Strong protests of the Vatican emboldened Slovak bishops and Catholic organisations, which strongly criticised the government for persecuting Slovak Jews; in a Catholic newspaper Katolícke Noviny, Catholic hierarchy condemned anti-Semitic actions of the regime. In response, Vojtek Tucha criticised the Slovak clergy for protecting the "interests of the Jews and in many cases non-baptized Jews".[51]
According to John S. Conway, although the representatives of the Slovak government claimed to follow Catholic values and presented themselves as independent from Germany, Slovak Catholics were largely unsupportive of the regime. Conway remarks that "the Christian tradition increasingly came to be seen as an element of resistance against Nazi influence", and the Sicherheitsdienst reports often mentioned widespread "anti-German or anti-Nazi attitudes of the Slovak clergy".[52] A report by the German intelligence service in Slovakia in May 1940 stated that "the activity of the Catholic Church in Slovakia must be described as completely anti-German".[52] The Church used its influence to direct rescue efforts for Slovak Jews, spread anti-German sentiments and often tried to prevent the introduction of further anti-Semitic laws. Humanitarian efforts by the clergy were in conflict with the racial policies of the Slovak government, and anti-Semitic actions of the regime were often presented as a product of German interference, imposed on Slovakia against the will of the population. According to Livia Rothkirchen, the Catholic Church was considered a formidable obstacle to Holocaust in Slovakia, with a German report from 12th of January, 1943, reporting that "a final solution of the Jewish question in Slovakia will in particular be opposed by the Catholic Church, which under the disguise of love of one's neighbour and other humanitarian sentiments, hinders any decisive steps against the plague of Jewry in Slovakia".[52] Local clergy supported the anti-Nazi resistance, which eventually culminated in the Slovak National Uprising. Conway notes that the Catholic clergy were ready to join the insurgents, and after the German suppression of the uprising, many in Slovakia saw the country as having to choose between submission to Germany or surrender to the advancing Russian armies. In this situation, Catholic churchmen "often welcomed the latter development".[52]
Belgium
The Constitution of Belgium established Belgium as a liberal democracy, with the constitution being one of the most liberal at the time. According to Bruno De Wever, the Catholic Church was supportive of liberal democracy in Belgium, as no anti-clerical policies were implemented unlike in France or Italy. De Wever notes that even "the ultramontane movement in Belgian Catholicism signed up to the Belgian constitutional institutions", and the constitutional freedoms provided a possibility for the Church to build a Catholic network of political and social movements and organisations. Political Catholicism was strong and dominating force in Belgium, as Catholic faith was widespread - in the 1930s, 98% of Belgian children were baptised, 80% of marriages were consecrated, and an overwhelming majority of Belgians attended Mass.[53]
From 1884 to 1914, Belgium was ruled by a pro-clerical
The Rexist Party of
During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, the Catholic clergy engaged in passive resistance, avoiding confrontation with German authorities while remaining hostile to Catholic collaborators. When the leader of collaborationist FNL, Staf De Clercq, died in 1942, the Catholic Church refused to organise his funeral, forcing the ceremony to be secular and open-air. According to De Wever, collaborationist and far-right movements were shunned by Catholic political elites, with fascism and Catholicism remaining separate and hostile social networks within Belgium; when Rexists were facing a dilemma between collaborating with Germany and joining the Catholic resistance, "their ultra-nationalism prevailed over Catholic solidarity".[53]
United States
Prior to 1961, the
Since the late 1960s, the Catholic Church has been politically active in the U.S. around the "life issues" of
Robert Drinan, a Catholic priest, served five terms in Congress as a Democrat from Massachusetts before the Holy See forced him to choose between giving up his seat in Congress or being laicized. The 1983 Code of Canon Law forbids Catholic priests from holding political office anywhere in the world.[56]
Argentina
Secularism was enforced in Argentina in 1884 when President
Brazil
Australia
Traditionally, Catholics in Australia had been predominantly of Irish descent and working-class.
International law
In 2003, Pope John Paul II became a prominent critic of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. He sent his "Peace Minister", Cardinal Pio Laghi, to talk with US President George W. Bush to express opposition to the war. John Paul II said that it was up to the United Nations to solve the international conflict through diplomacy and that a unilateral aggression is a crime against peace and a violation of international law.
Communism
Pope
See also
- Caesaropapism
- Category:Catholic political parties
- Estates of the realm
- Gallicanism
- Guelph
- History of the Roman Catholic Church
- Missi dominici
- Separation of church and state
- Theocracy
- Weiblingen
- Integralism § Catholic integralism
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