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Church and Democracy

Reflections by Manfred Hanglberger

 

1. A true democracy must be a social order in which decisions are not made by majority vote alone.

>> Otherwise such a system is a dictatorship of majorities over minorities.

>> Other than that, this democracy is just a system to settle different large-group interests in compromises - but at the expense of the interests of the smaller groups.

 

2. A democracy needs to be value oriented towards the dignity and human rights of each person, towards the whole of society and towards the whole of the networks in which its own social system is embedded:

>> In the community of nations,

>> In the ecological community of the planet.

 

3. An orientation towards values is a kind of "faith", since values cannot be scientifically proven, but it represents a mental and spiritual reality that requires the recognition and approval of the members of a community of values.
>> For example, the so-called "human dignity" is not verifiable, but meanwhile, it has become a concept of value that has become the basis of the constitutions of many peoples in the world.
 

 

4. Formulations of values such as "human dignity is inviolable" in the Basic Constitutional Law in Germany therefore represent a "creed".
A democracy based on a value system is therefore a kind of “confession of faith”, a kind of religious community.

 

5. The quality of values in a society shows itself in three aspects:
- the absolute value and dignity of every single person
- the "common welfare“
- the responsibility for the larger network into which one's own people are interwoven (world community and ecology).

 

6. For that reason, attention is to be paid in case of conflicts between interest groups within a society that there won't be lost sight of the values, i.e. the dignity of the individual and of the common welfare (the "big picture")

 

7. This not only requires a general legislation that protects the rights of individuals and groups, but also an institution that protects the "basics of faith", i.e. the values of this society - even against the most powerful organs of society: against the government and the majority decisions in parliament.

In Germany this institution is the Federal Constitutional Court.
It can declare majority decisions of parliament to be nil and void if they are not in accordance with the "creed", i.e. with the fundamental values of the Constitution of the peoples.

In the United States of America the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. exercises this function. In addition, all 50 states have a Supreme Court under the jurisdiction of that state.
The Court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The Court may decide cases having political overtones but has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions. (source: Wikipedia)

 

8. For the Federal Constitutional Court to be able to perform this task effectively, its members, the constitutional judges, must be independent of those groups in society, which are in political and economic power.
This requires an effective and controllable “separation of powers“.

 

9. The oath on the Constitution by members of the government, by the constitutional judges, but also by civil servants as servants of the state is to be seen as a genuine executed "profession of faith".

 

10. It is also essential for a democracy to keep this faith conscious, to proclaim it again and again on important state occasions, and to bring its contents into discussion in current disputes and dangerous situations. For faith needs awareness among the members of society, it needs contemporary, generally understandable formulations and persuasive power so that it can have an effect and endure - and thus protect and nourish the soul of a people.

 

11. In a democracy it is known that voting can be done on the "truths of faith", on the values of a people, and not through majority decisions of those bodies in which interest groups represent their interests.
Instead, a special constituent assembly is needed for this purpose, in which recognized authorities of the people are represented, who must assure that they are not concerned with partial interests, but with respecting the dignity and rights of each individual person and with the welfare of the whole nation.

 

12. That's why the decision-making bodies for the protection of essential values in the political area are more developed than in the Catholic Church, where there is not even a separation of powers.

 

13. From the above mentioned structural orders of a good democracy it becomes evident that the argumentation of the Church leadership is incomprehensible, which claims that democracy is not possible within the Church because one cannot vote on truth with majority decisions. Unfortunately, this is a cover-up of the deficits of their structures and means a clinging of the current ecclesiastical authorities to outdated positions of power.

 

14. By reasoning this way, "democracy" is unfortunately understood to mean a dictatorship of the majority, too. Being afraid of a "dictatorship of the majority," the Church leadership therefore adheres rigidly to a monarchist-authoritarian system whose structural order of values contradicts the message of the Gospels in many respects, because the values formulated there have to do with personal responsibility, freedom of conscience and subsidiarity.

 

15. Just as in a democracy the fundamental values of the constitution are not to be surrendered to arbitrary majority decisions, neither must the principles of faith of the Church (the truths of faith, which contain the values of the sense of life, values of the community, of creation and of the individual) be surrendered to majority decisions. But even in a religious community there are always many practical decisions that are best made on the long term by majority decisions.
Nevertheless, here too, it is of course important that, similar to the political structure of a state, there is an organ that checks whether the individual practical decisions are in accordance with the “fundamental values of faith”.

 

16. In our times, the Church would have to show that true democracy is a "matter of faith" - and that it must always be about universal values that exclude no one, which must therefore have a similar structure to the "catholic" (the " all-encompassing") of the Christian faith.
The Church should also be a model of how to develop community orders in which fundamental values are better perceived, understood, and protected by the members of the community, and which are also convincingly presented to the outside world.

 

Since true democracy is a "community of values" and therefore a kind of community of faith, it seems to not a few contemporaries that essential values of the Christian faith are better realized in a good democratic social order than in the present form of the Catholic Church.

 

For example:

- Control of power

- Clarity and transparency of jurisprudence

- Comprehensibility of formulated values

- Culture of dialogue, of criticism and dispute

- Dealing with dissenters and with differences of opinions

- Transparency of decision-making processes

 

In contrast, the Catholic Church does not appear to be up-to-date to many people. Today, their structures and their understanding of authority have a patronizing and bossy effect on more and more people, and are not very helpful for the problems and questions of the people of our times.

 

But the Church as a religious community has tasks that the state cannot perform!

 

Essential meanings and tasks of the Church in modern society:

- Help to endure all forms of fear of life and - as far as possible - help to overcome it.

- To promote comprehensive life affirmation and inner peace of the individual,
   by being perceived and accepted by God (enabling experiences with God).

- To offer ways of reconciliation in private relationships.

- To sensitize to vocational experience and to motivate lived responsibility for a common welfare.

- To promote and cultivate solidarity with others and around the world.

- Prophetic task in the face of unjust conditions (disclosure and offers to help).

- To strengthen the affirmation of life in suffering, strokes of fate, disability, danger of death.

- Acceptance of transience and one’s own death.

- Mourning and farewell in case of loss of relatives.

- To offer ways of reconciliation and a culture of solidarity with the deceased.

- Interpretation of the meaning of one's own life, of history of mankind and of the cosmos.

- To support a sound governmental order and its system of values.

- Spiritual impulses of reconciliation after wars and interpersonal hurtful conflicts (socio-political symbolic acts and therapeutic rites).

- To develop and offer meaningful and healing rites for important changes in life.

- To offer and cultivate a culture of perceiving values (conscience building).

- To advocate for human rights in all areas of society and worldwide.

- Special care for the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the disabled, the poor, the sick and the dying people!

Manfred Hanglberger

 

Translated by: Ingeborg Schmutte

 

Link to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-church-and-democracy.htm

 

 

More texts in English >>>

 

>>> True Democracy or „Dictatorship of the Majority“

>>> „Entirety - another word for “Catholic“
>>> Katholisch“- ganzheitlich glauben
>>> Zeitgemäße Spiritualität

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