Can the Church intervene in the political arena? The question regularly comes up in debates. Since the publication of Pope Francis' encyclical, which I spoke about on this channel last Monday, the debate has taken a sharp turn.
Certainly, Christian life is nourished by Sunday Mass and parish activities are necessary for the life of the Church, but if we thought we could limit ourselves to this while giving ourselves a clear conscience, the challenge of the encyclical "All Brothers" can ring the bells. Because commitment in the political domain, as an active citizen, is part of our vocation; in the face of the crises of our societies, we are political beings called to take a stand and act. The Gospel gives the light of God: "You are the light of the world", Jesus said to his disciples (Mt 5:14). This affirmation illuminates politics as a service to living well together in which everyone must take part. In this definition, we are far from the partisan struggles to which politics is too often reduced. We are each responsible for them. In fact, the temptation of exacerbated power or the thirst for domination can lie dormant or express itself in each of us. Here too, we need the light of God to clarify things.
We can clearly hear, from the words of the title " All brothers " of the encyclical, its reason for being: the call to live the Gospel of Jesus in the midst of the world. The encyclical can inspire the words and the implementation of the beautiful motto of the French Republic: " Liberty, equality, fraternity ". We know well that this noble political cause is a challenge: freedom to make decisions that are the fruit of community discernment and enlightened by the Spirit; equality in law, and also in a fair redistribution of goods, especially for those who lack the means to live in dignity; finally, fraternity in our relationships without which we are not truly human. By living in this way, we offer our hands to the love of God living in the world.
So yes, as the Pope points out, universal fraternity is hampered by certain trends in today's world, "the shadows of a closed world". For example; dreams and actions in the direction of a united Europe have had, in recent decades, certain obvious successes, notably in the direction of peace on our continent - and the promises linked to the European Union are still relevant. But, overall, there are signs of a decline, dictated above all by partisan and short-sighted economic and financial logic. The diagnosis can be made both at the level of a group of countries and at the level of the entire Planet: "while what only represents particular interests is disguised as rationality [...] in this culture that we are developing, an empty culture, obsessed with immediate results and devoid of a common project, "it is predictable that, faced with the exhaustion of certain resources, a scenario favorable to new wars will gradually be created, disguised as noble demands" (All Brothers, § 17).
Faced with a world where the community dimension of existence is weakening and without a project for all, Tous Frères opens a horizon of meaning and political commitment for each of us.
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