Politicis and Church

The question as to whether the Catholic Church should involve itself in politics is vexed. The Church burnt its fingers severely in the Fascist-Nazi era, and the post-War excursion into Christian Democrat politics failed in the long term. And yet history tells us that Church involvement in politics is not all about recent history but is deeply rooted in its past and indeed in scripture. From the time when David was rebuked by Nathan for the murder of Uriah, religious leaders have been no slouches at giving political rulers a good rap over the knuckles.

Jesus is not a King of this world but he is still a King. The letters INRI over the cross at Calvary, bears witness to this. There may a kind of ambiguity here but the message inevitably has political implications. The crown of thorns acknowledges Jesus’ kingship of this world. Over the centuries the Church has frequently clashed with the state. St Ambrose clashed with the Emperor Theodosius, and St Thomas Becket fought Henry II.

The social teaching as developed by Leo XIII through Rerum Novarum took the Church closer to political life. It is no coincidence that it was two Catholics, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adeneur, who after the Second World War sealed peace between Germany and France so that Europe would never go to war again. They were supported here by Pope Pius XII. (see Alan Paul Fimister, Robert Schuman: neo-scholastic humanism and the reunification of Europe, Brussels, 2008.) The resultant European Union has a social bias which is inimical to present day British Conservatism re-echoing as it does Napoleon’s adage that the English are a nation of shopkeepers.

In the English Catholic narrative, the need for the Church to stand up to the state was nowhere more strikingly demonstrated than in the Great Hall of Westminster in 1535 when Thomas More told the court that the Church was more ancient than any Parliament and that there was a higher authority than the court which was to condemn him to death. The Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer made a similar plea after the accession of Hitler to power. Both these pleas are ones that every Catholic and indeed every Christian should take to heart. There were many fine Christians who opposed Nazism and Fascism but also many who colluded.

We are now embarked on a process that may bring a change as fundamental as a religious reformation or the accession of a Godless dictator. Does Britain’s future lie in the European Union or elsewhere? Britain took part in the liberation of Europe but she held back from an intimate relationship with our allies on the Continent. Pro-Europeans believe that we should have joined at the beginning, but that we deluded ourselves that our future lay with the Atlantic alliance and the Empire. Both options were shown to be illusory. There was and is no special relationship with the USA, only an unequal one, and the countries of the old British Empire have gone their own way.

The battle lines are not primarily about our relationship with the European Union. They are principally about whether we look inward or outward as a country. The Catholic Church always looks outwards while not forgetting our personal salvation. There can be no mercy for the individual without mercy for the world.

Pope Francis’s call in Laudatio Si is a cry to think of the planet and indeed the cosmos. In his rebuke to Donald Trump he suggested that those who put up barriers cannot regard themselves as Christians. If we fail to work with other states and nations we are not caring for the true interests of ourselves. There can be no salvation for mankind which fails to take account of other peoples, whether it is the victims of the migration from the Middle East or the precarious state of Eastern Europeans who inhabit the badlands which border Russia.

Most political movements are coalitions. The Brexit movement was a coalition of those who look back to the past and especially to its Labour certainties, and the ‘nation of shopkeepers’ (or profiteers) out for a quick buck. A victory for Brexit is not a magic wand when we will be suddenly free of Brussels. We are stuck with Europe in one form or another whether we are like it not.

You can’t change geography. Trade deals with unpleasant governments like those of India and China are not the answer. There is no such thing as pure sovereignty. Only God is sovereign. Becoming a ‘beacon of free trade’ means more wealth for wealthy people. In Catholic Christian terms we need to be that city built on a hill top not a money-making machine. We will live for many years with the repercussions of the decision of the chancer Cameron. May God forgive our recklessness.

Whenever we receive the host at the Eucharist we make a choice to take Christ into the world and to enter a compact with the God who is the author of the Universe. Our faith is not private but intensely public. ‘Ite Missa Est’ said the priest in the old days. ‘Go you are sent out.’ We are not called through the Eucharist to enter a private insular world of ‘I’m all right Jack,’ but to live in the world. The Christian Democrat experiment was sectarian and defensive of the Church. True Catholic politics is based on conscience and not tribe. We look outwards and not inwards, and in this way we build the Kingdom of God.