Presence in public life

Our loyal and disinterested presence in public life offers immense opportunities to do good and to serve. Catholics cannot, nor can you, my children, abandon this field and leave politics in the hands of people who do not know or observe God’s law or who are clearly hostile to his holy Church.

Human affairs, private as well as social, are inescapably bound up with the law and spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Consequently, Christians can easily see that there is a mutual influence between the apostolate and the regulation of society by the State, that is, political activity. As Christ said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt 22:21).

Neither secularism nor clericalism

Unfortunately, people very often do not want to adhere to this very clear principle and, mixing up concepts, they end up in two extremes that are equally disordered. On the one hand there is secularism, which ignores the legitimate rights of the Church; and on the other, clericalism, which pushes aside the equally legitimate rights of the State. These two abuses, my children, must be combatted by lay people who consider themselves, and really are, children of God and citizens of both Cities.