Or, Centrist?
This first article looks at the politics of the Catholic Church from an ‘Average-Joe’ perspective—definitely a non-professional & non-educated view-point! The second article will review some the forces opposing Christianity.
The reality of what is happening to the Church right now is not pretty.
Politics 101
The Wikipedia definition of ‘Politics’ is “the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies politics and government is referred to as political science.”
Wiki provides some interesting individual definitions of Politics:
Harold Lasswell: "Who gets what, when, how."
David Easton: "The authoritative allocation of values for a society."
Vladimir Lenin: "The most concentrated expression of economics."
Otto von Bismarck: "The capacity of always choosing at each instant, in constantly changing situations, the least harmful, the most useful."
Bernard Crick: "A distinctive form of rule whereby people act together through institutionalized procedures to resolve differences…"
Adrian Leftwich: "Comprises all the activities of co-operation, negotiation and conflict within and between societies."
The commonest divisions in politics are Left, Right and Centre. To “The Left” is Socialism, Communism and “The Common Good.” To “The Right” is Capitalism, Individualism and the retention of personal wealth.
The centre is harder to define because it’s position appears to move when one extreme moves. The graphic below shows how this might be perceived:
Many who were normally 'left-of-centre' now find themselves right wing!
The reason is that the extremist’s attitude is, “if you’re not with us, you’re against us!” So, even “neutral” become the enemy.
All said, a Centrist position stays Centrist…no matter the position of others.
Centrists are those who embrace good policy which is not (necessarily) driven by ideology. “Liberty is not built upon narrow self-interest. It is built upon the recognition that there are more important things than self-interest.” [Murray Rothbard] A Centrist can view policy through a moral or ethical lens which guides overall decision-making to the betterment of family, friends, community and the world at large.
The Western Buddha, built around 591–644 AD
At the extremes we get variations of Totalitarianism.
Left-wing Totalitarianism included the USSR and the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong. Communists always attempt to eradicate Religion. Right-wing Totalitarianism included Nazi Germany; Fascist Italy and the Junta’s in Chile, Greece & Argentina. (Sometimes, right wing Dictatorships are supported by religious leaders, though some might have to do so to protect themselves, or their congregation.) Religious Totalitarianism gives us the Taliban; Hamas & ISIS. (Note the example of the destruction of Afghan religious artifacts to the right.)
Many in the secular West are deeming Christianity—especially Catholicism—as “far-right.”
So, does the Church have a political stance?
In 2017, Pope Francis reminded Catholics that “such political loyalties have no place in the Catholic Church. When Christians “take sides and form parties,” the pope said, “[we] become Christians of the ‘right’ or the ‘left,’ before being on the side of Jesus.”
Clearly, the Holy Father has freely commented on a whole raft of issues, many which are not directly ‘religious’ or related to typical catechesis. Climate Change; Environmentalism; Globalism; LGBT issues; Identity politics; wealth & inequity & mass migration, to mention a few. Absolutely, he throws in some spiritual guidance, but his analysis of fact is frequently incomplete, or biased or he appears to follows the fashionable trend of the day. Pope Francis shows himself to be left-leaning and socialist.
In 2021 the Holy Father went on to say:
The Vatican is an independent country: the Pope is our leader and he is the public face of the Church to the world. Many view the Church as a ‘multinational company’!
with Obama
with Putin
with Biden
with Trump
with Patriarch Bartholomew I
with Buddhists from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
with Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II
with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheik Ahmed Muhammad Al-Tayyib
If the Pope approached world leaders as a pure spiritual leader, he would instruct them on moral formation with appropriate catechesis. When he does not comment on the promotion of grave sin by these paragons, he is being political!
with Macron (...et tu Brute?)
with Merkel
with Queen Elizabeth II
In every Pope’s defense we have to remember that the Church can only survive in a world of psychopathic killers if she runs the fine-line of ‘neutrality.’
The Church has survived mass-murderers like Hitler (~17 million exterminated); Stalin (20-50 million dead); Mao Zedong (15-70 million dead); Pol Pot (1.5-3 million dead) and Kim Joun-il (up to 3.5 million dead).
The Church also survived wars over the centuries including, WWI (~28-60 million dead) & WWII (~70-85 million dead.)
There have been other devastating events including the Black Death in the 1300’s. Bubonic Plague killed 25-50 million people out of the world population of ~450 million people.
It is disingenuous to suggest that the Church has survived 2000 years by being “not political.”
Wrestling with pigs
We all hope and pray that ‘our ship’ has the Lord’s divine hand on the tiller, but patently the Pope sometimes has no option other than to wrestle with the pigs, in order to protect the Church.
Kevin Hay
(You can follow Kevin on 𝕏/Twitter @ kevinhay77)