Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnist
Unfortunately, not too few Catholics are the same in that regard. Maybe I will step on someone's toes now, or maybe not, but for example there is the so called "Catholic Worker's Movement" which is heavily political in nature, no? And I have seen members of Stirpes with "Catholic" in their politics field, at which I was tempted to just say that Catholicism is not a political doctrine. Also, there are Catholics who say about the Holy Roman Empire that it was "a good Catholic state" - contradiction in terms as I see it, but obviously it isn't for all Catholics. It doesn't mean that Catholicism is intrinsically political, but many Catholics think it should be.
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You are right, there are such attempts to make a purely political ideology out of Catholicism, but it is deeply wrong and contrary to the teaching of the Church. I am totally and irreconcilably opposed to such views, there can be no such thing as "Catholic state". A state can be Catholic only in a sense that a majority of its inhabitants professes that faith or that the Catholic Church has an important role in the public life of the respective country, but no state can be "Catholic" in its essence. Even in the Papal State of yore (
Patrimonium Sancti Petri, ceased to exist in 1870, when Garibaldians took Rome) there was division between temporal and spiritual sphere.