It is worth remembering several meanings of the term Church to specify its relationship with politics, of which we can also distinguish several meanings.
Church is a word derived from the Greek ekklesía, which means assembly, congregation. Historically, its use has remained fixed to name the conglomerate of believers in Christ, a group that has diversified over the centuries, as a result of ruptures and separations of different kinds (schisms, heresies). A relatively recent movement, ecumenism, has been promoting, among other things, meetings between the various confessions to promote progressive Christian unity.
In Venezuela and in many countries, particularly in the West, the majority of the population adheres to the Catholic Church; This is identified as the original Christian trunk, which has as its fundamental distinctive the maximum authority of the Pope, who is considered Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter.
Returning to the term Church (and specifying it in the Catholic Church and, more specifically, that of our country), it is necessary to register several meanings in it: a) the first and basic one is that of a conglomerate or group of believers, and thus we say that the great The majority of Venezuelans adhere to the Church, which has marked the history, the culture, of our people, since the constituent meeting five centuries ago; b) another, second, is that of the authority or hierarchy, in it, and, more specifically and centrally still, the Episcopate or Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (association of bishops). Thus it is commonly said that “the Church has established a position regarding the national reality,” when our Episcopate has made a declaration.
The application of the term Church is not reduced to these two meanings. Let us think of fully legitimate expressions such as the following: “Every baptized believer is the Church”, “I, the baptized (member of a family, worker, student, politician…) am the Church”, “the laity (secular) are the Church in almost its entirety. ”. Saint Paul defined the Church as the body of Christ (1 Cor 12), whose members – with diversity of gifts, charismas, functions – are and must be active and co-responsible for the people of God.
“The Church (in reference to the hierarchy) must say a word and assume a prophetic stance in the present national crisis.” It is a phrase that is heard frequently. But it is very important not to simply identify the saying-acting of the Church with what the hierarchical representation of it does-should do. The bishops have a primary responsibility in the exercise of the evangelizing mission of the Church; However, it does not totalize it. The laity also have a mandatory role, particularly in terms of contributing to the construction of a new society, a task that is more their own and peculiar.
In this socio-political matter, there are two dangers to avoid: absenteeism and clericalism. Namely, the self-marginalization of the hierarchy (bishops, priests) in that field, as if the pastoral had nothing to do with the temporal; and the undue interference of the clergy in tasks peculiar to the laity under their own responsibility, such as the exercise of power and partisan activity.
Something I would like to emphasize here is the responsibility of Catholics, all of them, in assuming politics (that is, active presence, co-responsible, in the “polis”, the city, citizen coexistence) as a requirement of their human condition and Christian vocation. And the hierarchy in the Church has as one of its inevitable tasks to contribute to the formation and encouragement of the laity for an effective, helpful role in that field, especially when the fate of the “polis” (dignity of the human being and basic common good,) is at stake. As is happening today in Venezuela
God created the human being as a “political being” and the Lord Jesus Christ will ask an account of this (see Matthew 25, 31-46). The “religious” and the “ecclesial” are not alienating from this earthly city, but, on the contrary, require an unavoidable Christian commitment to the construction of a “new society.”
The entry Church and politics was first published in EL NACIONAL.