Legal Commentary

The Archbishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, delivers another cogent presentation that is timely in this year of seeming  interminable, and often excruciating, political campaigning. Over at First Things, he's adapted portions of a presentation given on January 11, 2008 in New Orleans entitled "Catholic Identity in the American Public Arena" into a short article entitled "Better Citizens, More Faithful Catholics."

Although you need to read the entire article (it won't take long, for those with attention deficit disorder), here are a few of my favorite of his "ten simple points":

1. George Orwell said that one of the biggest dangers for modern democratic life is dishonest political language. Dishonest language leads to dishonest politics?which then leads to bad public policy and bad law. So we need to speak and act in a spirit of truth.

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4. The Church is not a political organism. She has no interest in partisanship because getting power or running governments is not what she?s about, and the more closely she identifies herself with any single party, the fewer people she can effectively reach.

5. Scripture and Catholic teaching, however, do have public consequences because they guide us in how we should act in relation to one another. Loving God requires that we also love the people He created, which means we need to treat them with justice, charity, and mercy. Being a Catholic involves solidarity with other people. The Catholic faith has implications for social justice?and that means it also has cultural, economic and political implications. The Catholic faith is never primarily about politics; but Catholic social action, including political action, is a natural byproduct of the Church?s moral message. We can?t call ourselves Catholic, and then simply stand by while immigrants get mistreated, or the poor get robbed, or unborn children get killed. The Catholic faith is always personal but never private. If our faith is real, then it will bear fruit in our public decisions and behaviors, including our political choices.

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10. The heart of truly faithful citizenship is this: We?re better citizens when we?re more faithful Catholics. The more authentically Catholic we are in our lives, choices, actions and convictions, the more truly we will contribute to the moral and political life of our nation.

All ten points are instructive, and are of a piece. The temptation to political partisanship can be overwhelming, and I see its corrosive effects on certain bloggers, some of them Catholic and some of whom I otherwise respect and even admire. It's always useful to have a religious leader who thinks and writes so clearly as Archbishop Chaput remind us of the role that politics ought to play in our lives and the essential precepts that ought to guide us as we play a role in the political arena.