Teaching of Catholic social doctrine not intrusion into partisan politics, says Argentinean archbishop

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov 1, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Archbishop Domingo Castagna of Corrientes lamented this week that some consider “the normal teaching of Catholic social doctrine to be an intrusion into partisan politics.”

The archbishop called it a “tactic to silence” those who - in absolute freedom - speak the truth, especially Catholics.  Therefore he called on Catholics not to overlook certain aspects of Catholic social teaching, which some people ignore out of ignorance or ulterior motives.  “In a world that fluctuates between truth and falsehood, violence and peace, good and evil, the Church’s work of evangelization is increasingly necessary,” he said.

Archbishop Castagna also reminded the laity of their duty to become involved politics.  “Pope Benedict XVI,” he recalled, “in keeping with his venerable predecessors, reminds us of the irreplaceable mission of the Catholic laity in bring the Gospel into the temporal sphere, including politics.”

While clergy involvement in politics has on occasion occurred in the past, he noted, such cases were due to “exceptional circumstances in which the foundational values of the country were at stake,” and while it is not inconceivable that extreme circumstances could warrant it again, in accord with the recent statements by the Pope, the norm should be that the laity, properly formed in the faith and in the realities of the temporal sphere, assume responsibility for political affairs.