The Church-Society and Church-World Relationship
Americans have cherished the tradition of church-state separation. Leading Catholics such as James Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop John Ireland saw this tradition as highly beneficial to a late nineteenth-century church that struggled to prove itself acceptable in America. In fact, the separation has worked out well. Each religious group has been free to function and flourish without state interference. The church does not encroach upon the legitimate authority and expertise of the state. While the church may proclaim moral principles such as the dignity or social nature of the person, it does not tell the state how to solve issues of public well being. Similarly, the state does not encroach upon the religious sphere. Both function with mutual regard and respect.
As the Catholic community reflected on the tradition of church-state separation, it began to realize that this was not the full picture. Thanks to the insight of Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray, the church began to address the church-society and church-world relationships.
The church is not competent to interfere in the sphere of the state. However, the church-state binary is not the only relationship at stake in the world today. Beyond the role of the state, there exists society and the world. The church-society and church-world relationships are significant forums today.
Society includes many institutions that mediate meaning and promote a quality of justice and life. Institutions such as libraries, museums, theaters, labor unions, cultural and educational groups, all of the arts, voluntary associations and groups with special interests shape public life. The church, rich in humanitarian and cultural experience, is able to engage society and to exercise enormous influence in Athens and in Jerusalem. The church fulfills its role as herald of good news when it presents guidelines for authentic dialogue and it mediates meaning by freely engaging others in civil discourse. Society thrives when there is reasonable discourse about things that matter in the commonwealth. The nation flourishes when many different players provide a principled ethical analysis of the society and shape its public philosophy. At stake. is the quality of life that is possible for all.
Similarly, we live in a church-world relationship due to modern communications, technology, and economic policies, transnational corporations and other kinds of systems. This relationship is the fault line where the church engages the world. Globalization means that we no longer live in isolation from one another. International trade and information make us interdependent. The church has been a public servant through its worldwide social and relief services. It also has a rich heritage of moral principle and vision that can be creatively adapted to the local and global needs of the world. Pope John Paul II has recognized the significance of the church-world relationship through his own travels and ministry. He has taught that the great virtue of the 21st century is solidarity, i.e., a concern for a universal common good.
In short, the evangelization of the cultures that constitute America will require creative thinking about the church’s relationship to the state, the society, and the world. Future columns will address these relationships as they have played out in the history of the church in the United States.
John J. O’Brien, C.P.