Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Catholic Social Teaching and the elections

In light of the upcoming mid-term elections, the Evangelical Catholicism blog has a three part (soon to be four part) summary highlighting important aspects of Catholic Social Teaching.

Check it out!

3 comments:

Dogwood Dell said...

Gashiwn,

This concept of free markets caught my attention:

It may surprise many, but the Church rejects the notion that a free market automatically produces justice. The Church acknowledges that competition and free markets are useful elements of economic systems, but these markets must be kept within limits established by law, otherwise it leads to individualism

Guess this may oppose those who uphold strong Libertarian ideals.

Sincerely,

Dogwood

Heather said...

Okay, I am not trying to stimulate an argument, but I just finished posting about how I am not thrilled with mega-churches prostelitizing their politics ... how do you feel about the separation of church and state? (You can read my comments exactly if you need some more context.)

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

I think the separation of church and state is the best thing that happened to Christianity, Heather. That said, surely the Gospel has a political manifestation? "Help the poor" also has a political side -- in the sense of what kinds of social and economic policies we follow? As a Christian, I expect to carry my faith in the choices I make as a citizen, and in a pluralistic democracy I invite all believers to bring all their thoughts into the public square.

In fact, not being funded or supported by the Church gives her the opportunity to influence society in this way, by transforming the lives and consciousness of the faithful.

If the Church tells me which political party to vote for or which candidate, that would be illegal. And problematic.

I haven't read your thoughts yet I'll get to those in the morning. I've got to write a post that's been bouncing around my head. :)