Should The Church Be More Politically Involved?

By Lavoisier Fernandes –

The summer months in India, with its hot scorching heat, can be a source of discomfort, raging with high temperature related emotions, while the delights of a variety of seasonal fruits can be a counter, a source of comfort and respite with an ever-increasing longing for the soon-to-come monsoon season. However, in India, especially for the tiny 2.3% Christian community, the summer of 2024 has an additional kind of discomfort, with genuine electoral emotions running high, precisely for the right reasons and with every increasing sense of skepticism hoping for some respite.

It is indeed election season in my home country of India, where more than 1.4 billion-strong population comprising of 79.8% of Hindu, 14.2% Muslim, 2.3% Christians, and 1.7% Sikh will head to the ballot box in seven waves between April 19 and June 1.

Besides, it is also the season where politicians’ make fervent false promises with the usual of eradicating corruption and poverty doing the rounds, combined with other newly creatively proclaimed bait pledges of inviting Pope Francis to India and the well-known old “divide and rule” strategy that once colonised but is now plagiarised, all this making it a perfect hotchpotch, but certainly not an alternative to the refreshing Indian summer seasonal fruits to “keep cool”.

As always and this being a norm in every country, prior to elections, the Catholic Church is obligated to disseminate pre-election communications through various circulars and news releases, whether through the bishops’ conferences or the relevant diocese. Normally, pre-election messages frequently stick to talking points about how important voting is for the greater good.

However, these elections in India are a bit different, Bishops and priests have, however, urged voters to exercise caution in these elections in order to preserve the secular nature of the Indian Constitution. Given that the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, an Indian ecumenical monitoring group, recorded 161 cases of anti-Christian discrimination and persecution in the first 75 days of this year, the tiny 2.3% Christian community in India cannot under any circumstances ignore this fear and sincere concern. During the last ten years of the incumbent national government’s administration, this has expanded, not only with the Christian community but with also other minority faith communities.

Amidst all of this election-related discomfort, among Indian Catholic circles there are legitimate concerns about the political role of bishops and priests, specifically whether Indian Church leaders and priests should be more involved in politics (not only during election season) and lead from front, say like the El Salvadorian Archbishop St. Oscar Romero, the Saint, who symbolized widespread political unrest and economic hardship, or Bishop Álvarez of Nicaragua, who was recently sentenced to 26 years in prison and exile, or for that matter the late courageous son of the soil, Fr. Stan Swamy who stood defending the rights of Adivasis in India which eventually cost him his life.

Political Involvement – Where Does the Church Start or Draw the Line?

The Catholic Church’s teaching on the appropriate level of political involvement is nuanced and balanced. It has always been the position of the Catholic Church that the political community and the Church are mutually independent and self-governing, and the Church also respects the legitimate autonomy of the democratic order.

Excerpts from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine (No 81, 524, 534 and 571) of the Church:

1. The Church recognizes the autonomy and distinct roles of the political and religious spheres, but also affirms the duty of Catholics to be politically engaged in pursuit of the common good.
2. The Church’s role is not to exercise political power or eliminate freedom of opinion, but rather “to instruct and illuminate the consciences of the faithful, particularly those involved in political life, so that their actions may always serve the integral promotion of the human person and the common good.”
3. Similarly, the Church “does not present a political programme, still less a party political one.” Rather, the Church’s social teaching provides “a set of consistent and complementary principles, values and goals” to guide political engagement. The Church recognises that many non-Catholics can also accept much of this teaching.
4. Bishops have a responsibility “not only to speak out against injustice, but above all to bring to bear the principles of the Church’s social teaching on the problems confronting their people, with particular attention to the poor and the victims of society’s imbalances.”
5. The Church’s social doctrine is a “privileged instrument of dialogue” between the Church and civil/political authorities, providing “an important support and a rich source of inspiration” for their work.
6. The Church’s social teaching emphasizes the “obligation of every individual to contribute to the good of society, in the interests of justice and in pursuit of the ‘option for the poor.’
7. The laity have a “direct duty to work for a just ordering of society” and a responsibility to be actively involved in politics. The laity should be guided more by moral convictions than partisan interests .They should give “a clear and courageous witness of Christian values” in political debates and the media.

Political Engagement is the Duty of all Catholics not only of Bishops and Priests.

The Church teaches that political engagement is a worthy vocation and a duty for “all Catholics.” This duty neither starts and stops with Bishops and priests. Surely the Church, through the bishops and priests, plays an important role in forming consciences and speaking out against injustice. But the laity as well have a pivotal political engagement duty, guided by moral principles and the pursuit of the common good, not by partisan or personal interest. This at times involves not accepting freebies in disguise of political favours to regularise illegalities, seeking government jobs with political assistance, or being accomplices of corruption, and many more, whilst also camouflaging this hypocrisy under the convenient narrative of minority persecution.

The Church’s social teaching is an essential part of its evangelising mission, but this mission is not limited to the handful but to all baptised. To that end, as Pope Pius XI put it:

“When once men recognise, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace, and harmony.”