It is very fashionable to harshly criticise politicians. They can never find refuge in a closed season. They face a perpetually open hunting season.
In Malta, we have a very strange love-hate relationship with them. Most people say they do not trust politicians but then they go in droves to trust them with their votes. Most people expect politicians to be very clean and never break rules but then they expect politicians to break rules on their behalf.
Most politicians I know deserve respect. They are well-intentioned individuals genuinely motivated to be of service for others. They work hard and in difficult circumstances.
Like the rest of us, they are not perfect. Like us, they make mistakes. Like us, they face moral dilemmas and family problems. Sometimes these problems are the result of the great pressure their work puts on them. Like us, they need compassion, forgiveness and understanding. They are not demi-gods.
Most politicians I know are men and women committed to the building of society on healthy values. Not all of them are inspired by Christian values, but they are nevertheless inspired by values.
Some politicians inspired by Christian values have not updated their political actions with developments in Church social doctrine, and consequently their words and deeds reflect the Christianity of yesteryear rather than that of today.
Unwittingly and unwillingly, they do a disservice to the Church they love. Others are very familiar with the Church's most recent social teaching and let this teaching permeate their political action.
It is not easy to be a good Christian politician. As Pope Benedict said on May 21, "the times we are living in place us before great and complex problems, and the social question has become, at the same time, an anthropological question... The spread of a confused cultural relativism and of utilitarian and hedonist individualism weakens democracy and fosters the dominance of the strong powers."
The Church does not expect Christian politicians - even if they live in a country with a Catholic majority - to seek political or cultural hegemony, but, it expects them to engage in the democratic dialectic and in the search for ample consensus with other political forces.
In the above-quoted speech, the Pope calls for consensus, especially among those concerned with "the defence of life and liberty, the protection of truth and of the good of the family, solidarity with the needy and the necessary search for the common good". These core values should be at the vanguard of political action.
However, some Christian politicians may differ from others, and also from non-Christian politicians, when it comes to translating these principles into concrete political programmes and actions. Such pluralism is natural and healthy.
In another speech on May 20, Pope Benedict said it is up to Christian politicians to show concretely that "faith enables one to read reality in a new and profound way and to transform it; ...that charity in truth is the most effective force to change the world; that the Gospel is guarantee of liberty and message of liberation; that the fundamental principles of the social doctrine of the Church, such as the dignity of the human person, subsidiarity and solidarity, are very timely and of value for the promotion of new ways of development at the service of every man and of all men".
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt