Two of our book reviews this month contain interesting examples of Catholics who, confronted with political authorities antithetical to the Church, managed to establish their legitimacy within civil society, navigating their way through the Scylla and Charybdis of excessive subservience to the State on the one hand and a rebellious isolationism on the other.
The first example is to be found in Rev. Conor Donnelly’s review of Archbishop John Joseph McCarthy. Clareman John Joseph McCarthy became the first archbishop of Nairobi, Kenya and managed to establish Catholic schools in Kenya despite opposition from the colonial authorities who were not well disposed towards Catholicism: “He trod a careful and diplomatic line in championing the rights of Catholic schools in the face of challenges from the colonial government. He kept the Church within the system and saw to it that the educational work of the Church was recognised.” In doing so Archbishop McCarthy did the State of Kenya an invaluable service.
The second appears in James Bradshaw’s review of Our Dear-Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America by Michael D. Breidenbach.
Breidenbach recounts how American Catholics in the newly established American colonies, and then within the independent USA, fought tenaciously to be recognised as equal citizens. To achieve this they had to make what James Bradshaw calls “theologically awkward” concessions regarding their recognition of papal infallibility. In doing this, Bradshaw adds, “the path which the Catholics of America charted was to have a major impact on how Church-State relations were perceived within the universal Church.”
The situation of Archbishop McCarthy and of the early American Catholics was, of course, is as old as the Church itself: the early Christians within the Roman Empire refused, despite the waves of bloody persecution, to become a rebel faction within Roman society. Tertullian, still writing during times of persecution, describes Christian engagement with civil society as follows: “We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you – cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum, – we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. (Apology, ch. 37)
A Catholic today often faces the same dilemma: to what degree should I obey political authorities that discriminate against me? A case in point have been Covid regulations here in Ireland; nowhere have the regulations regarding hygiene, social distancing etc. been adhered to more assiduously than in Catholic churches throughout the country, even to the point of dispensing with sacraments for months on end. It has become increasingly clear however that the government for its part is not playing fair with the Church. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, has observed that the prohibitions applied to religious services “is perplexing, as no such prohibitions are applied to other events, such as sporting or civic events, or other family occasions, such as the celebration of birthdays and anniversaries, or indeed to weddings or funerals. Many have concluded that, in the absence of appropriate justification, these guidelines are discriminatory.”
And so the patience of bishops around the country has finally run out and they have for the first time decided to ignore the advice coming from the government regarding Covid. This refusal to accede to what amount to discriminatory guidelines is itself an exercise in civic spirit, for it is to stand up to an abuse of political power detrimental to the common good. Recently even experts in human rights law have begun to question the legality of the government’s modus operandi with regard to Covid. In their report – Public Health Law During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Ireland – experts at the Covid-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory at Trinity College Dublin hold that there has been an undue delegation of the government’s already extraordinary powers to unelected technocrats in the form of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).
Such responsible but robust engagement with political authorities reflects the fact that we are political creatures, and that we can only reach our fulfilment by participating in political life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that, “The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature. Through the exchange with others, mutual service and dialogue with his brethren, man develops his potential; he thus responds to his vocation.” (CCC 1879)
About the Author: Rev Gavan Jennings
Rev Gavan Jennings is a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature working in Dublin. He is editor of Position Papers.