The Church’s interest in Caesar

There are different positions that people take about the Church which irk me. One is the tendency that tries to close the Church in the proverbial sacristy. This is generally the position of people who have very little love for the Church, and, I add, who have a very dim idea of what pluralistic society is all about.

The Church has a duty to make its voice heard in respectful dialogue- Fr Joe Borg

The Church, they say, should concern itself with things of the ‘soul’; anything that has to do with politics, the economy, and so on, should be out of bounds for the Church. Liturgy, private counseling, works of charity and pious preaching should be the only domains of the Church.

Strangely enough, there are many who love the Church but who also unconsciously share such a mentality, though for different reasons. They preach a spirituality that is individualistic and, in a certain sense, almost alienates people from the building of the Kingdom of God here on Earth, as the things of the world are ‘dirty’.

Then there are people who go to the other extreme, they get the Church involved in all sorts of controversies, from the sub­stantial to the inane ones. The media hypes such positions, especially when they are somehow described as official positions.

Some of those who harbour this position believe the Church can speak authoritatively and defi­nitively on almost anything. They want the Church to dictate while everyone else follows.

Fortunately, there are many within the Church who have a totally different concept of the Church and its place within society. They believe, like Vatican Council II, that the Church should be present in earthly realities, though its presence should be animated by the Word of God. They believe the Church speaks on different levels, not all of which are authoritative in the same way.

On many issues there are not only different positions in society but also different stands among Catholics. Consequently, inter­ventions in the public sphere are occasions of dialogue, not pronunciation of a final or definitive position.

Two commissions within the Church in Malta that are in line with this mentality are the Justice and Peace Commission, and the Inter-diocesan Commission for the Environment.

The latter is, I believe, more present in public debate that the former. However, whenever either of them takes a public position, it is a position to reckon with.

Last Sunday I made a reference to the Justice and Peace Commission statement about the pre-Budget document.

Actually, the statement was two docu­ments joined together (more than synthesised) into one document.

In fact, I think, it was metho­dologically mistaken not to have edited the documents into a seamless one.

The first part of the statement proposed to a larger extent the theoretical dimension. There is nothing wrong with this approach, since, as the famous dictum goes, theory is the best part of practice.

Some basic aspects of the pre-Budget document, such as employment and its relationship to social inclusion, and the shift from a culture of dependability to a culture of contribution, are analysed in line with the basic principles of Catholic teaching on social justice.

The commission document enlightens and proposes without preaching. It proposes a realistic vision, that is, one that does not lose sight of the details of everyday life in a time of profound worldwide crisis.

The second part of the document targets the relation­ship between the economy and the environment.

Stylistically it seems to be more practical. However, it goes from theory to practice and vice-versa. It notes, for example, the balan­cing act that the pre-Budget document tries to perform between environmental, econo­mic and social concerns; while expressing the opinion that the document loses this balance as its main concern is economic.

This statement is a good example of the way forward for the Church in a pluralistic society. It has a duty to make its voice heard in an exercise of respectful dialogue and in a language that can be understood by the rest of society.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt