Questions of Church and State

From Traces:

If You Do Away with the Church You Do Away with Yourself

What use is the Church to the world? One could answer, “To mollify the consciences of Christians.” In that case, the only thing to do is to relegate the Church to the private sphere, confine it within the sacred walls, limit it to whispered prayers. “Not to be seen in public.” No crucifixes are to be hung on the walls, no manger scenes allowed in the schools, no talk of Mary on primetime television, no appeals to consciences on morally sensitive issues. If the Church is there at all, it is not relevant. However, one could give a different answer. The Church serves to safeguard the “I,” to reconnect the heart of all men to the origin of things, to keep desire awake, to show where true Beauty lies. If you destroy the Church, you destroy yourself, too.

Massimo Caprara. “Undue Interference”? Not at All

For twenty years, he was Palmiro Togliatti’s secretary, member of parliament in four governments, journalist, and co-founder of the Italian Communist daily Il Manifesto. He eventually rediscovered the Church and the faith, in a journey he described in a book last year (Riscoprirsi uomo [Rediscovering Oneself ], published by Marietti). Child of an age in which Christianity was under siege, he is a privileged witness of an age, our age, in which it is still necessary to explain why there is still a great need for the Church.

Eugenio Corti. The Church: a Voice of Salvation for All
When man wants to eliminate God he replaces Him with idols.

Yes, like the Russian Communists who wanted to build an earthly paradise, and the German Nazis who wanted to recreate the world. They wanted to remove suffering, poverty and weaknesses by eliminating the weak!

In the sixties and seventies, with other methods, that awful anti-Christian march started again, and the Church was seen as backward. Why? Because the Church wants to help man in his daily struggle, coming to grips every day with original sin, which cannot be eliminated. Those who want to recreate the world try to ignore this reality, and whatever they try to build is destined to fail.

Free Church and Limited State
Paolo Carozza:

The religious character of American culture and the role of the Church in public debate reveal why a concordat between Church and State is superfluous in the USA.

From 30 Days:
Free of the English, free to profess themselves Catholics
Interview with Cardinal William Henry Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore by Giovanni Cubeddu

Two hundred years ago the first cathedral in the United States was constructed in Baltimore. Symbol of that freedom that the Declaration of Independence guaranteed to Catholics also.