Questions Catholics should ask political election candidates

Questions Catholics should ask political election candidates Eamonn Meehan, Executive Director of Trócaire
Separating faith from politics, suggests Christianity has nothing to say on social justice, writes David Quinn

Many Catholics entirely separate their faith from their politics. It is a very strange move. It’s as if they believe the Gospel has nothing to say about the just ordering of society, which is ultimately what politics is about, or at least is supposed to be about.

Can it really be that Christianity has nothing to say about justice or about the common good? Put that way, the notion is clearly absurd.

Successive Popes have spoken on a continuous basis about justice and the common good. Numerous Bishops’ Conferences have established justice commissions. Religious orders have devoted themselves to the pursuit of ‘social justice’. Fr Sean Healy and Sr Brigid Reynolds have established Social Justice Ireland.

And yet it remains the case that many Catholics separate their faith from the politics.

This, of course, makes their faith a purely private thing and it leaves it up to others to decide what justice and the common good is. It is to assent to something very peculiar, namely the idea that others know better what justice is than Christians. Or even more bizarrely, that the Gospel of Christ has nothing to do with justice.

This is despite the fact that the New Testament, like the Old Testament, devotes a great deal of time to how we should treat each other and not just on a personal, one-to-one basis, but on a societal basis as well.

Secular

Perhaps some Catholics park their faith outside the door of their politics because that’s what they are told to do by the dominant secular voices in society.

Or perhaps it’s because they think what Christianity has to say about justice and the common good is divisive, that is to say, not everyone agrees with it.

But no vision of justice and the common good has universal agreement. This is why we developed democracy. A functioning democracy allows all of us to put our vision of justice and the common good before the voters and lets the voters decide which one to opt for.

Why should Christians decide not to put their vision forward, or worse, to decide they have nothing to contribute as Christians?

At a conference last Saturday, jointly organised by The Irish Catholic and the Iona Institute (which I head), the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Eamon Martin, listed a number of very relevant questions he believes Catholics should ask their politicians in the coming election.

He said: “We might ask those who seek our vote: To what extent can you, in contemporary Ireland support family and life, freedom of education and conscience, a proper work-life balance, which respects the role of mothers and fathers? What will your economic and social policies say to poorer families in Ireland, particularly those policies which impact directly on family: the needs of children and the elderly; tackling the proliferation of drugs, alcohol, gambling and other addictive behaviours which can destroy home and family life? How will your welfare policies and benefit programmes support families who are most in need and who are so easily targeted and exploited by loan sharks and other criminal elements? How will you better assist young people who wish to establish a family, mortgage a home, take out insurance, but who may sometimes be convinced by economic policy to remain single?”

Questions

His list of questions was mainly about the impact of various policies on family life. That is because his address was about the recent Synod on the Family and its relevance to Ireland. That was also the theme of the conference itself.

But what impacts the family obviously impacts society as well. It could hardly be otherwise.

Archbishop Martin’s list is comprehensive, as it should be. Different Catholics will emphasise some parts of this list more than others.

Catholics mainly concerned about economic justice will emphasise that more strongly. Catholics who strongly believe in the equal right to life of all human beings, and in the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman will emphasise these.

But an overall Catholic vision of the common good brings all these strands together and the different emphases different Catholic groups place on the different strands does this as well.

Christian theology speaks about the Body of Christ. The various parts of this body perform different functions but to a common end. The various groups within the Catholic Church emphasising different parts of the Catholic vision of the common good is the Body of Christ in action.

Parishes

Archbishop Martin’s list would in fact be an excellent one to send to all Catholic parishes for distribution, so Catholics can take it home and put some of the questions to their local candidates as they call to their door seeking their vote.

Or they could email the list to their local candidates and request answers, or email them to party headquarters.

Or perhaps some of the groups working in these fields could do likewise.

Priests ought to address their congregations about these issues. There is no reason to avoid it. It would be one thing for a priest to say vote for this party and not that one, but to simply lay out the sort of issues that Catholics ought to be concerned about at election time should be completely acceptable and would, in fact, be an act of service to their parishioners.

Archbishop Martin’s questions leave wide latitude for different policies to address the various concerns. Take the issue of welfare policies, for example. Welfare programmes must be designed so as to avoid creating unintentional disincentives to taking up a job. What is the best way to do that? There will be various answers to that question.

There will also be various answers to how to create the best work/life balance, although funnelling resources into day-care at the expense of looking after children at home is clearly not the right answer.

Archbishop Martin’s questions are an excellent starting point for all Catholics in the election campaign. If enough politicians are asked these questions enough times, then we must actually make some progress towards bringing about a society in which the common good is genuinely served.