KATALIKŲ DALYVAVIMO POLITIKOJE NUOSTATOS
OPINIONS ON THE PARTICIPATION OF CATHOLICS IN POLITICS

Summary/Abstract: The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, November 24, 2002, has published the present Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the participation of Catholics in political life. This inspired to perform a research and clarify the opinions of believers about politics and society, their opinion about the relation between faith and politics, understanding of the Church documents about participation in politics. In today’s democratic societies everyone is made a participant in public life, such societies call for new and fuller forms of participation by both Christian and non-Christian citizens. The life in a democratic society could be unproductive without the active, responsible and generous involvement of everyone. But a kind of cultural relativism exists today, evident in the conceptualization and defence of an ethical pluralism, which sanctions the decadence and disintegration of reason and the principles of the natural moral law. The analysis of the research survey performed in spring 2004 revealed that the believers were not aware of the Church documents about political life; they chose responses contradicting the teaching of the Church and did not recognise the authority of bishops in political issues. All this is rooted in the wrong perception of secularity. For Catholic moral doctrine, secularity is understood as the rightful autonomy of political or civil sphere with respect to religion and the Church - but not to morality. The Church’s Magisterium does not wish to exercise political power. Instead, it intends - as is its proper function - to instruct and illuminate the consciences of the believers, particularly those involved in political life, so that their actions may always serve the integral promotion of the human person and the common good. For the lay Catholics there cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so- called ‘spiritual life’, with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture. In fact, every area of the secular life, as different as it is, enters into the plan of God, who desires that these very areas be the ‘places in time’ where the love of Christ is revealed and service of others.

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