SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
Feast of St. Joseph of Cupertino (1663), Priest, Patron of Aviators

My Beloved:

As we come into the final leg of the politic season here in the United States it is prudent to explore again the issue of the separation of Church and State. Indeed, in this election, the subject of personal religious faith has been part of the campaign.

Is the doctrine of separation of Church and State an idea from God?

On the general topic of "separation of church and state", as we think of it today, we need to remember that there is no such thing in the Constitution of the United States. This doctrine as been contrived as a legal fiction by the courts.

The Constitution refers to the State shall not "establishing" religion; in otherwords, there shall be no State Religion. It does not infer anything else.

Nevertheless there is a natural separation between Church and State. The Church teaches what Jesus taught, "to render to Ceasar that which is Caesars" (Mt 22:21). The Church teaches that we are to obey civil authorities (unless it violates the moral order), pay our taxes, travel no faster than the speed limit, etc.

The State needs to not interfere with religious faith and practice unless that practice is a danger to society and the rights of others (i.e. human sacrifice, torture, abuse, kidnapping, false imprisonment, sexual abuse, etc.). Within the Catholic Church there are no elements taught that are dangerous to society. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

2254: Public authority is obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person and the conditions for the exercise of freedom.

These fundamental rights include religious freedom to believe and practice one's faith.

The Church also teaches that we are to be good citizens and to be involved in the political life of the nation. The Catechism on this point states:

2255: It is the duty of citizens to work with civil authority for building up of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom.

As mentioned above, the one exception to obedience to civil authority is when that civil authority demands of us something that is contrary to moral order. The Catechism states:

2256: Citizens are obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order. "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

What is not true, however, either from the religious viewpoint or a Constitutional one, is that separation of Church and State means a sterile absolute pluralism that dares not mention religion or religious values at all. Without the values of Christianity we would have barbarism. The values of Christianity has direct relevance to the political state and indeed the individual politician must bring those values with him into his political office. In this regard the Catechism states:

2257: Every society's judgments and conduct reflect a vision of man and his destiny. Without the light the Gospel sheds on God and man, societies easily become totalitarian.

In addition the Church has the right, mission, and duty from God Himself to bring His values to bear upon the political scene. The Catechism states:

2246: It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundemantal rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it.

As can be seen from the discussion above, there is a great deal of interaction and integration between Church and State. Without such interaction and integration we would become victims of a brutal government that cares not for its citizens.

Finally, the Catechism speaks to this point:

The political community and the Church
2244 Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. The Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired truth about God and man:

Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny, as history shows.

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