Pope: faith's public voice at risk
LONDON (CNS) – Christianity risks being sidelined in the West and the “voice of religion” must be heard in the public square, Pope Benedict XVI warned British cultural and political leaders.
The pope’s speech Sept. 17 laid out his vision of how belief can influence politics and save the principles needed for true democracy. Religion, he said, is “not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation.”
The pontiff addressed some 2,000 leaders in politics, business, the arts and diplomacy in Westminster Hall, a site rich in church-state history. State trumpeters greeted him with a fanfare. An ovation filled the hall as the red-caped Pope took the podium for his nationally televised speech.
Westminster Hall, he recalled, was where St. Thomas More, the 16th-century English scholar and statesman, was sentenced to die for opposing King Henry VIII’s break with Rome. He said the saint’s trial underscored a perennial question about how much governments can impose upon citizens and their religious beliefs.
Modern democracies, he said, face the challenge of making sure that fundamental moral principles are not determined by mere social consensus.
The pope said the church teaches that the ethical basis for political choices can be found through reason; the church does not dictate these norms as religious truths, but it does promote them in a “corrective” role, he said.
This contribution of religion is not always accepted, he said, in part because “distortions of religion” like fundamentalism are seen as creating serious social problems. But he said reason, too, can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology.
In short, he said, the world of reason and faith need each other, and their relationship is a “two-way process.”
The pope warned about what he called “the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity,” which he said is occurring even in countries that have a reputation for tolerance.
He said there are some who argue, for example, that Christmas should not be publicly celebrated because it might somehow offend those of other religions or of no religion. He also complained of a failure to appreciate freedom of conscience and the legitimate role of religion in public debate.
Some, he said, openly advocate that “the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere.” On the contrary, religion and politics need to be in dialogue, he said, and one step in that direction was the “unprecedented invitation extended to me today.”
The pope also offered an example of where ethical and moral influences have brought about a notable achievement: the abolition of the slave trade by the British Parliament in 1807.
In Westminster Hall, which is part of the Parliament complex, the pope said that “the angels looking down on us from the magnificent ceiling” were a reminder of the traditional religious element in British democracy.
“They remind us that God is constantly watching over us to guide and protect us. And they summon us to acknowledge the vital contribution that religious belief has made and can continue to make to the life of the nation,” he said.
Before leaving, the pope briefly greeted a number of dignitaries, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who became a Catholic after leaving office three years ago.
At a Mass in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sept. 16, the pope said that the “dictatorship of relativism” threatens to distort the truth about human nature.
The Holy Father exhorted Catholics not only to be examples of faith in action but also to defend the influence of the Christian faith in the public forum.
“There are some who now seek to exclude religious belief from public discourse, to privatize it or even to paint it as a threat to equality and liberty,” he said. “Yet religion is in fact a guarantee of authentic liberty and respect, leading us to look upon every person as a brother or sister.”
Society needs clear voices that propose our right to live free from “a jungle of self-destructive and arbitrary freedoms,” he said.
Instead, the faithful must put forth a vision of a society that works for welfare of its citizens and guides and shelters them in the face of their weakness and fragility, he said.
The pope landed earlier in the day in Edinburgh, where he met with Queen Elizabeth II and was treated to an official state welcome. In a televised speech, he warned that attempts to exclude God from social and political life can lead to disaster.
In calling for the invigoration of Catholic witness in British society, the pope pointed to the example St. Ninian, who died in 432. The Scottish evangelizer’s feast fell on the day of the pope’s arrival. St. Ninian was “unafraid to be a lone voice” in proclaiming the Gospel in society, the pope said.
“In the course of my visit it has become clear to me how deep a thirst there is among the British people for the Good News of Jesus Christ,” the pope told British bishops in Birmingham on Sept. 19 at the close of his trip.
He encouraged them to spread the Gospel in full – “including those elements which call into question the widespread assumptions of today’s culture.”
By John Thavis
From September 24, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
