Politics and the Church

[dominikus28]

Recently, Fernando Lugo, a former Catholic bishop, became president of Paraguay. Apparently th Vatican has a problem with this. I don’t see what the problem is. During the renaissanc there were many politician who were Catholc priests. The syllabus of errors says that church and state should be together, what better way to make this happen then to have Catholic politicians who studied the faith and know what itsall about.

It wouldn’t be a mortal sin, would it? Or is the Vatican just saying this because of pressure from modern secular society? [Think of the exclusion of the Jewish prayer in the latin mass that was reintroduced]

Also, the inquisition as justified, right? It was not evil or unchristian as modern society believes, right?

 

[Dale_M]

You packed a lot questions into this thread!

I wasn’t aware that the Vatican was disturbed by Lugo’s election. But here is a news link for those interested.
timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3796652.ece

I am not entirely sure of why the Church frowns on priests being in political office. Perhaps it has to do with possible controversy if the priest supports laws which are contrary to the Church’s teachings (which has happened in the US and in Canada). Or perhaps it is a result of the Liberation Theology controversy of the 1970s and 1980s.
I don’t know, but look forward to learning.

As for the inquisition, maybe a separate thread for it?

 

[Danuska]

I think that the Church and State should be separate - I do not see one single party that would be truly Christian (corruption, nepotism, all the dirty tricks used against the opponents, scandals, immorality of some of the party members), so one thing that happens is that politics gives Church bad name. Now some accuse the Church that it supported the Nazi party in Spain during the reigh of General Franco. The example from Renessaince just proves that the involvement of top Church officials in politics didn’t do the Church much good - Luther rebelled and one of his reasons was all the bad things that were happening in the Church - one of which was the Church leaders being ‘too worldly’ and too much concerned with wealth and earthly power, something that you do not really find the Gospels.

Second thing, the involvement of Church in politics can put off those who have differnet political views.

And last and most important, Jesus refused to have anything to do with politics - during his time, the cause of those fighting for the independence of Israel was justified - Jews were oppressed by Romans, yet Jesus didn’t do anything to restore the kingdom of Isreal just as the Jews expected it - He even said that his Kingdom is not of this world. In the end, you cannot serve two lords.

But there is another issue - the Church not only has a right, but obligation to talk about moral issues, such as abortion or euthanasia.

 

[drafdog]

Let’s put it this way: if you were a Head of State, would you condone one of your subordinates being also a Head of State? Look at the possible conflicts of interest involved. That is why Sr. Luga resigned from his position as bishop in order to take up the presidency.

Matthew