Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 24 No. 1, 2004.
Original scientific paper
The Church Towards Democracy. From the Considerate Non-Recognition to the Evaluative Acceptance
Tonči Matulić
Abstract
Since 1891, Roman Catholic Church is systematically engaged in the social issues. In the context of this kind of Church’s engagement the issue of democracy, as a social and political State system, found its place only in 1944. The traditional Church teaching represents the principle that the right on practicing the authority isn’t bound with any form of government. This view had the consequence that the Church wasn’t opposed to any form of government, if this showed the capability to serve to the good of citizens. But almost at the end of the Second World War the Pope Pius XII stated that if the future belongs to the democracy, than the essential part of its realization is about to become the part of the Christ’s faith and the Church concern. Seems to be very important to keep in mind that the change of the Church’s »paradigm« toward democracy was happened in the time when political dictator- ships shown their true face of inhumanity and bloodthirstiness. And yet these inhumane dictatorships were »legitimate« governments. As such they caused bloody World War in the twentieth century. The negative consequences were the deep split and hostility among nations, never before seen bloodshed, the Holocaust, and many millions of innocent victims. Therefore it seemed that the rising and dominant conscience about the rightness of democracy had no more the alternative. The hurriedly democratization of the post war societies and the creation of social and political presuppositions for implementation of democratic governments set the Church in motion to take seriously care of the issue of democracy. Generally speaking it was going in two basic directions. Firstly, the Church constantly was trying to understand the new situation and to give her own seeing of democratic society in the light of the Gospel and the fundamental ethical principles. In conformity with her primary mission of proclamation of the Gospel the Church took possession of the conscious following the development of democracy. This because she herself was, at least in some parts of the world, immersed in democratic society. Secondly, the process of the democratization of Western societies wasn’t gone well underway, the issue of the democratization of the Church herself arouse. In the process of the Church’s facing the democracy, especially in her effort to give the right orientation to that process, three factors has played the major role. First, in 1963 for the first time in one official ecclesiastic document expresis verbis were mentioned the basic human rights and duties that rise from the same nature of human person. Second, the Vatican Council 2 has recognized the right autonomy of worldly things, and consequently of the politics and the political pluralism, having welcomed the growing consciousness about human dignity in the world. The human dignity requires a special social and political order capable of preserving and promoting it and its basic rights. The same Council has condemned all forms of social and political orders that obstruct civic and religious freedom. Third, the Vatican Council 2 has recognized the right of the human person on social and civic freedom in the matter of faith. This right doesn’t depend upon one’s subjective disposition, but it is grounded in the very nature of human person.
Together with earlier recognition of the political pluralism, religious pluralism re- presents the necessary preconditions for positive evaluations of democracy in the Church’s social teaching. But from all this stems the fact that the ethical pluralism is unavoidable since the foundation of religious freedom in the nature of human person legitimate the liberty of the individual conscience.
This fact tums aside the attention on the deeper problem, namely on the way of functioning of democratic society in which rises the issue of ethical relativism that represents the source of big trouble for the Church’s conception of ethics of the natural law. However, in the midst of the qualitative move in the Church’s teaching on democracy lies the human person, his/hers inherent dignity and the basic rights seen in the light of Revelation. The recognition of the »sign of time« in the in- creased consciousness of human dignity, human rights, and human freedom made possible that since than the Church is being engaged actively in the realization of the project of democracy in modern societies. The ecclesiastic engagement on this project from the very beginning went through the promotion of ethical principles that rise from the dignity of human person seen in the light of Revelation. But at the same time since than the Church is continuously facing the problem of the democratization of itself from inside. The democratic consciousness of the modem faithful has grown and is permanently getting more sincere and mature. Today’s faithful is at the same time the Citizen. Because of this fact the Church is dealing to- day with growing demands of all members of one particular society for the participation and the joint responsibility in the society, and this is extending over the Church too. From this newly created circumstance rises a new question about the possibility and range of the process of democratization of the Church itself and its institutions. It might be said that about this kind of process more than any other theologian or sociologist, knows only the future that unavoidably is about to come.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
202946
URI
Publication date:
2.3.2004.
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