Michael Falzon in his article Divorce About Upholding Order (February 4) referred to a statement made by Archbishop Paul Cremona.

However, this is a partial quotation of what the Archbishop is saying, in accordance with what Pope Benedict XVI said in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est paragraphs 28 and 29:

“The just ordering of society and the state is a central responsibility of politics... The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible.

“She cannot and must not replace the state. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper” (par. 28).

“The direct duty to work for a just ordering of society, on the other hand, is proper to the lay faithful. As citizens of the state, they are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity. So they cannot relinquish their participation ‘in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good’ (Christifidelis Laici par. 42)” (par. 29).

It is up to the lay individual members of the Catholic Church to take up this teaching and play their part, like other members of the state with different convictions, in diffusing this doctrine, and make their convictions to bear on society for the common good.

The Archbishop would suggest that all interested go through the Encyclical, especially paragraphs 28 and 29, available online: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html.