{"id":6329,"date":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2015\/12\/01\/courtship-between-church-and-state\/"},"modified":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T00:00:00","slug":"courtship-between-church-and-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2015\/12\/01\/courtship-between-church-and-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Courtship Between Church and State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In September 2015 Pope Francis I made history by addressing a joint session of the United States Congress. His address to the U.S. Congress was historic for
\n\tseveral reasons. Not only is he the first pope to speak before the bicameral legislature, but also his actions call into question the American concept of
\n\tseparation of church and state.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmerican Founders, such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, et al., were well enough acquainted with European history to know that they wished to found a
\n\tgovernment \u201cwithout a king and a church without a pope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Roman Catholic Church had been so heavily involved in European politics for centuries that anti-Catholic sentiment ran strong among citizens of the
\n\tfounding era. Such sentiment continued to exist throughout American history, demonstrating itself in the burning of Catholic churches during the early
\n\t1800s in what some scholars have termed \u201cthe Protestant Crusade.\u201d1 Anti-Catholic political sentiment was manifested in the mid-1800s through the
\n\tKnow-Nothing Party (later renamed as the American Party). By the early 1900s, opposition to Roman Catholicism in politics was notably evident in the defeat
\n\tof presidential candidate Alfred Smith, who was the first Catholic to run for president.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was not until the 1960 presidential election of John F. Kennedy that Roman Catholics began to be accepted into mainstream American life, both socially
\n\tand politically. Kennedy\u2019s bid for the White House faced strong opposition from Protestant clergy, who were concerned with whether his allegiance would be
\n\tto the pope or to the American republic. This became known as \u201cthe religious question\u201d during the presidential debates. After addressing a joint gathering
\n\tof Protestant clergy in Houston and dismissing any fears of hidden loyalties to Rome, Kennedy went on to win the election and become the first Roman
\n\tCatholic president. Kennedy\u2019s actions on \u201cthe school question\u201d—whether Catholic parochial schools should receive public tax dollars or not—demonstrated his
\n\tcommitment to upholding the concept of separation of church and state: he disallowed public taxes to support Catholic private education. However, his
\n\tactions infuriated American Catholic bishops, who turned decidedly against him—a stance still held by the current United States Conference of Catholic
\n\tBishops (USCCB).2 Perhaps all Catholic legislators can glean some wisdom from John Kennedy, who was a widely popular president while in office.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout three decades later the Roman Catholic Church played a pivotal role in the fall of Communism in Europe. Allying itself with U.S. secret intelligence
\n\tforces, dubbed by Time<\/em> as \u201cthe Holy Alliance,\u201d3 both the church and the U.S. overthrew a common threat, resulting in the freedom for the church to
\n\tachieve its mission in society and the advancement of democracy. However, in retrospect, one may ask whether the CIA was utilizing a powerful religious
\n\tentity to overthrow a political rival, or whether it was being used as one of the leading political powers in the modern world to accomplish papal aims.4
\n\tU.S. Secret Service agencies, recognizing how much power and influence the Catholic Church wielded through the fall of Communism, closely monitored Pope
\n\tJohn Paul II every time he visited America.5<\/p>\n

\n\tAgainst such a historic backdrop, Pope Francis I is certainly attempting great things on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. News analysts such as David
\n\tGibson in the April 30, 2015, article of the Religion News Service identified six items that were likely on Francis I\u2019s agenda before the U.S. Congress.6
\n\tHis list includes: welcoming immigrants, battling economic inequality, fostering strong families through economic justice, protecting the environment,
\n\tfighting partisanship in politics, and promoting dialogue rather than ideology.<\/p>\n


\n\tImmigration and a Republican Legislature<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSince the current legislature is composed predominantly of conservative Republicans, Pope Francis I may have a hard sell on some of his views. On the issue
\n\tof immigration, the pontiff encouraged Congress to take a more receptive stance toward immigrants, many of whom come from Latin American countries and who
\n\tare Roman Catholics. Support for the immigrant population in America could affect votes at the polls and help America to become a predominantly Roman
\n\tCatholic country. Right now analysts estimate that 24 percent of Americans identify themselves as Roman Catholic.7 Maybe the Vatican coat of arms will one
\n\tday fly over the White House and U.S. Capitol instead of the ISIS banner, as some radicalized Muslim extremists have threatened. This may seem a foolish
\n\tcomparison, but it is the far more likely of the two.<\/p>\n


\n\tEconomic Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding economic issues, Francis I supports Catholic social concepts of distributism to foster a more just economic society. Distributism favors the
\n\tdistribution of private ownership of property among the greatest number of citizens possible. In this regard, it differs from socialism, which seeks to
\n\teliminate private property. Also, distributism does not seek to eliminate the state structure of society.8 Therefore, those embracing distributism frown
\n\tupon a capitalistic society, seeing it as evil and fostering greed. Legislators got some candid remarks from the austere Francis I regarding economic
\n\tdisparity and some chiding for monetary greed.<\/p>\n


\n\tEnvironmental Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tFrancis I expressed to the U.S. Congress some of the concerns contained in his recent encyclical, Laudato Si\u2019<\/em>, which denounces the destruction of
\n\tthe environment solely for material gain. In light of statistical information that shows the United States ranks second among those nations producing the
\n\tlargest amount of carbon dioxide emissions9 and is the country of origin of several oil magnates renowned for destructive oil spills, the pontiff delivered
\n\tsome stinging words of correction.<\/p>\n


\n\tPolitical Catholicism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIn view of the history of an embattled Congress in recent years, Francis I promotes dialogue and the need to avoid partisanship in politics. For those
\n\tAmerican Catholics who support political views that run contrary to church teaching, Francis I reminds them that God should come first, even before
\npolitical views. In essence, the pontiff is encouraging Catholic politicians to live their faith in public office, the very issue that Kennedy decided\tnot to do<\/em>, since his public office required him to uphold the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n


\n\tChurch-and-State Relations<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding church-and-state issues, some would argue that Pope Francis I is merely fulfilling his political role as an ambassador from the Vatican City
\n\tState. However, others would argue that the pontiff also serves as a religious leader of a particular faith group. For a comparative argument, Native
\n\tAmerican Indian land, often referred to as the \u201crez\u201d (reservation), is recognized by the U.S. Government as independent and sovereign territory. How often
\n\thave Native American religious leaders been allowed to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress to express their concerns regarding deforestation of
\n\ttribal lands (some of which are sacred sites) that have been exploited merely for monetary gain by American logging companies? How often have tribal
\n\tleaders been allowed to address our nation\u2019s legislature regarding poverty-stricken and destitute living conditions on the reservation?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe formal establishment of political ties with the Vatican has been contentious from the time of President Franklin Roosevelt, who first attempted to
\n\tassign a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican in 1933. Roosevelt\u2019s efforts were decried by the populace and rejected outright, based on the principle of
\n\tseparation of church and state. By the 1980s Ronald Reagan had fostered favorable ties with the Vatican and accomplished what no other president could
\n\tdo—formally recognize the Vatican as a legitimate state by assigning to it a U.S. ambassador. Through such ties the Reagan administration was able to
\n\tfacilitate a working relationship with Rome that resulted in the fall of Communism. However, the singular point of contention from a church-state
\n\tperspective is that every U.S. ambassador to the Vatican must be a Roman Catholic approved by the Papacy, a fact known by few Americans. In 2009 the
\n\tVatican informally rejected Obama\u2019s nominees, an action described by the Italian national paper Il Giornale<\/em> as a \u201ctrial of strength between Barack
\n\tObama and the U.S. church that involves the Holy See.\u201d10 Why should Roman Catholicism receive such favor above all other religious groups? And one should
\n\task a far more serious question: Why do American citizens not realize the struggle between a foreign religious entity and our national government whose
\n\toutcome will directly impact the future direction of our country and our civil liberties?<\/p>\n

\n\tAn additional point of grave concern from a church-state perspective regards official, diplomatic agreements with the Holy See. Vatican Council II
\n\t(1962-1965) promised great reforms within the church and with regard to its extra-ecclesial relations. While many changes did occur, the church did not
\n\talter its standard practice of establishing formal ties with other states. Historically, these agreements were referred to as concordats.11 Typically, they
\n\tnot only formalized political relations between the Vatican and other states, but also included provisions for the favoring of the church and its
\n\tadherents, especially in those states where Catholics were the majority. Provisions varied from one concordat to another, but usually guaranteed
\n\trecognition of the Catholic Church as the one true religion and some form of state support for Catholic schools and churches. Most often, such support was
\n\tpublic tax dollars being given to those schools and clergy immunity from civil proceedings.<\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding the former practice, perhaps America is gradually adopting this custom through school vouchers? Regarding the latter practice, clerical immunity
\n\twas based on the superior role claimed by the church in society: priests were considered above civil law and courts, instead being tried by ecclesial
\n\tcourts in cases of criminal allegations. Thus far, American society retains its concept of religious neutrality that clerics (and Protestant pastors, or
\n\tother religious leaders) are not exempt from civil laws and cannot be tried in purely religious courts in cases of criminal acts.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is one other factor that makes Pope Francis I\u2019s address to the U.S. Congress an historic event—yet American citizens and constitutional scholars
\n\tvoiced little, if any, opposition to it. One would expect that within a modern, liberal democracy such as America, which also champions religious pluralism
\n\tand government benevolent neutrality toward religion, more groups would decry governmental violation of the separation of church and state. Previous
\n\tgenerations of American citizens have shown great concern and care in protecting our civil and religious liberties. One must ask if that commitment
\n\tcontinues; or why it has been set aside in this case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In September 2015 Pope Francis I made history by addressing a joint session of the United States Congress. His address to the U.S. Congress was historic for several reasons. Not only is he the first pope to speak before the bicameral legislature, but also his actions call into question the American concept of separation of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-6329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november-december-2015","tag-november-december-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}