Separation of church and state...

[Amolibri]

so very true. Bill Moyers has been talking about this a lot lately. Several months ago he had on two very respected guys, gosh I can’t remember but I think they were think tankers…one very liberal, one very conservative and both were calling for immediate impeachment of Bush, solely on the issue of the unprecedented claims of executive power that are seriously threatening to our representative govt now. To suggest that these people are wrongthinking is obvious, but they do this knowing that almost certainly this new power will pass to Democrats. This suggests a naivety that is quite striking. This admin. truly is lacking in that basic quality of either common sense or actual deep intelligence. It’s getting scary out there!

These 2 commentators were Bruce Fein and John Nichols.
Here’s the link:
pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html

[and thanks, Spirit]!

 

[Genesis315]

As for the Catholic teaching on Separation of Church and State, it depends on what version. The version of the Rationalists is condemned by Bl. Pius IX and to this day–that is, separation of truth and state under the guise of separation of Church and state based on an erroneous understanding that governmental authority came from man rather than God–it amounts to a banning of God from public life. Likewise, both should work together in harmony. However, the correct version was always taught and still is that there are two different spheres governed by two different authorities, who both receive authority from the same God:

Here Pope Leo XIII explains the true version:

“13. The Almighty, therefore, has given the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, things. Each in its kind is supreme, each has fixed limits within which it is contained, limits which are defined by the nature and special object of the province of each, so that there is, we may say, an orbit traced out within which the action of each is brought into play by its own native right.”
papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13sta.htm

As Pope Benedict XVI said in his first encyclical:

“The two spheres are distinct, yet always interrelated.”
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html

Or as he said in a past address:

“Today, the impediments to the spread of Christ’s Kingdom are experienced most dramatically in the split between the Gospel and culture, with the exclusion of God from the public sphere.”
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060908_canada-ontario_en.html

 

[fix]

As for the Catholic teaching on Separation of Church and State, it depends on what version. The version of the Rationalists is condemned by Bl. Pius IX and to this day–that is, separation of truth and state under the guise of separation of Church and state based on an erroneous understanding that governmental authority came from man rather than God–it amounts to a banning of God from public life. Likewise, both should work together in harmony. However, the correct version was always taught and still is that there are two different spheres governed by two different authorities, who both receive authority from the same God:

Here Pope Leo XIII explains the true version:

“13. The Almighty, therefore, has given the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, things. Each in its kind is supreme, each has fixed limits within which it is contained, limits which are defined by the nature and special object of the province of each, so that there is, we may say, an orbit traced out within which the action of each is brought into play by its own native right.”
papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13sta.htm

As Pope Benedict XVI said in his first encyclical:

“The two spheres are distinct, yet always interrelated.”
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html

Or as he said in a past address:

“Today, the impediments to the spread of Christ’s Kingdom are experienced most dramatically in the split between the Gospel and culture, with the exclusion of God from the public sphere.”
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060908_canada-ontario_en.html

Very good and thanks.

I offer this as well.

 

[Ridgerunner]

'thank you so cal for another thoughtful response. I’ve been trying to little effect to explain that this blind allegience of some Catholics to the neo-con agenda is not to their ultimate benefit. Given the true beliefs of the Religious right about Catholics, life under a genuine evangelical govt would generally not bode well for Catholics in this country.

What, exactly is a “neo-con”?

What, exactly and in detail, is the “neo-con agenda”?

What part of the “Neo-con agenda”, precisely, are Catholics (being blindly allegient) supporting but not seeing?

What are the true beliefs of the members of the Religious Right whom you actually know, about Catholics, and how many do you know?

What do you mean by a “genuine evangelical government”? A president only? President and a majority in Congress? What?

What percentage of the electorate do you think are Evangelicals?

What do you figure the “genuinine evangelical government” you defined above, will do to Catholics if elected?

What evidence do you have of their intentions?

Have you ever lived under a government, state or local, that was overwhelimingly Evangelical? If so, what anti-Catholic things did they do?