Agreed with the other commentators on this thread, but I will be a bit more specific.
I would assume that with this “Catholic Party”, there would be, as a plank, or several planks, of their platform that they would support implementation of the Social Teaching of the Church in all matters of national policy.
So let’s take one issue from this: unions. The Church favors unions, right?
Well…let’s look at the Magisterium on this:
From Pope St Pius X, Encyclical
Singulari Quadam (On Labor Organizations) – from 1912:
- Furthermore, if Catholics are to be permitted to join the trade unions, these associations must avoid everything that is not in accord, either in principle or practice, with the teachings and commandments of the Church or the proper ecclesiastical authorities. Similarly, everything is to be avoided in their literature or public utterances or actions which in the above view would incur censure.
The Bishops, therefore, should consider it their sacred duty to observe carefully the conduct of all these associations and to watch diligently that the Catholic members do not suffer any harm as a result of their participation.
The Catholic members themselves, however, should never permit the unions, whether for the sake of material interests of their members or the union cause as such, to proclaim or support teachings or to engage in activities which would conflict in any way with the directives proclaimed by the supreme teaching authority of the Church, especially those mentioned above. Therefore, as often as problems arise concerning matters of justice or charity, the Bishops should take the greatest care to see that the faithful do not overlook Catholic moral teaching and do not depart from it even a finger’s breadth.
This was validated by both
Pope Pius XI and
Pope Pius XII. Multiple popes have cautioned against having a “class struggle” between labor and capital (including Leo XIII, John XXIII, and John Paul II).
Pope John Paul II, in his Encylcical,
Laborem Exercens, cautioned about labor unions being closely associated with one party or another.
In this sense, union activity undoubtedly enters the field of *politics, *understood as *prudent concern for the common good. *However,
the role of unions is not to “play politics” in the sense that the expression is commonly understood today. Unions do not have the character of political parties struggling for power; they should not be subjected to the decision of political parties or
have too close links with them. In fact, in such a situation they easily lose contact with their specific role, which is to secure the just rights of workers within the framework of
the common good of the whole of society; instead they become
an instrument used for other purposes.
Yet what we see, today, is completely opposite of the Ordinary Magisterium. Can anybody tell me the last time they heard any hierarch speak out about any union supporting such things as abortion, homosexual ‘unions’, or fomenting a class struggle?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not besmirching any hierarch for silence here (as, obviously, none of us would know any private conversations they may or may not have had with union leaders). But you can see, if from no place else, from the pages of CAF, where many people take the Church’s support for labor unions as being absolute, regardless of the actions of the union, itself.
That’s just one example. You can also read in the words of the popes words talking about the true meaning of solidarity, subsidiarity, what the “common good” actually means, and so forth. And then you can read in the words of others how these clear concepts are perverted.
My concern with a so-called “Catholic Party” is that it would quickly be perverted by those who attempt to pervert the Social Doctrine of the Church already…
The best thing to do is for all of us to become very, very familiar with the Church’s Social Doctrine (what the popes have actually written, not what others say about it) and then to push the parties that are out there already to actually implement that in the earthly city.
