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Pope
Benedict XVI - Addresses |
"Acknowledge the Vital Contribution
That Religious Belief Has Made"
Westminster Hall
H.H. Benedict XVI
September 17, 2010
www.zenit.org
Mr. Speaker,
Thank you for your words of welcome on
behalf of this distinguished gathering. As I
address you, I am conscious of the privilege
afforded me to speak to the British people
and their representatives in Westminster
Hall, a building of unique significance in
the civil and political history of the
people of these islands. Allow me also to
express my esteem for the Parliament which
has existed on this site for centuries and
which has had such a profound influence on
the development of participative government
among the nations, especially in the
Commonwealth and the English-speaking world
at large. Your common law tradition serves
as the basis of legal systems in many parts
of the world, and your particular vision of
the respective rights and duties of the
state and the individual, and of the
separation of powers, remains an inspiration
to many across the globe.
As I speak to you in this historic setting,
I think of the countless men and women down
the centuries who have played their part in
the momentous events that have taken place
within these walls and have shaped the lives
of many generations of Britons, and others
besides. In particular, I recall the figure
of Saint Thomas More, the great English
scholar and statesman, who is admired by
believers and non-believers alike for the
integrity with which he followed his
conscience, even at the cost of displeasing
the sovereign whose "good servant" he was,
because he chose to serve God first. The
dilemma which faced More in those difficult
times, the perennial question of the
relationship between what is owed to Caesar
and what is owed to God, allows me the
opportunity to reflect with you briefly on
the proper place of religious belief within
the political process.
This country’s Parliamentary tradition owes
much to the national instinct for
moderation, to the desire to achieve a
genuine balance between the legitimate
claims of government and the rights of those
subject to it. While decisive steps have
been taken at several points in your history
to place limits on the exercise of power,
the nation’s political institutions have
been able to evolve with a remarkable degree
of stability. In the process, Britain has
emerged as a pluralist democracy which
places great value on freedom of speech,
freedom of political affiliation and respect
for the rule of law, with a strong sense of
the individual’s rights and duties, and of
the equality of all citizens before the law.
While couched in different language,
Catholic social teaching has much in common
with this approach, in its overriding
concern to safeguard the unique dignity of
every human person, created in the image and
likeness of God, and in its emphasis on the
duty of civil authority to foster the common
good.
And yet the fundamental questions at stake
in Thomas More’s trial continue to present
themselves in ever-changing terms as new
social conditions emerge. Each generation,
as it seeks to advance the common good, must
ask anew: what are the requirements that
governments may reasonably impose upon
citizens, and how far do they extend? By
appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas
be resolved? These questions take us
directly to the ethical foundations of civil
discourse. If the moral principles
underpinning the democratic process are
themselves determined by nothing more solid
than social consensus, then the fragility of
the process becomes all too evident - herein
lies the real challenge for democracy.
The inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term
solutions to complex social and ethical
problems has been illustrated all too
clearly by the recent global financial
crisis. There is widespread agreement that
the lack of a solid ethical foundation for
economic activity has contributed to the
grave difficulties now being experienced by
millions of people throughout the world.
Just as "every economic decision has a moral
consequence" (Caritas in Veritate, 37), so
too in the political field, the ethical
dimension of policy has far-reaching
consequences that no government can afford
to ignore. A positive illustration of this
is found in one of the British Parliament’s
particularly notable achievements – the
abolition of the slave trade. The campaign
that led to this landmark legislation was
built upon firm ethical principles, rooted
in the natural law, and it has made a
contribution to civilization of which this
nation may be justly proud.
The central question at issue, then, is
this: where is the ethical foundation for
political choices to be found? The Catholic
tradition maintains that the objective norms
governing right action are accessible to
reason, prescinding from the content of
revelation. According to this understanding,
the role of religion in political debate is
not so much to supply these norms, as if
they could not be known by non-believers –
still less to propose concrete political
solutions, which would lie altogether
outside the competence of religion – but
rather to help purify and shed light upon
the application of reason to the discovery
of objective moral principles. This
"corrective" role of religion vis-à-vis
reason is not always welcomed, though,
partly because distorted forms of religion,
such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can
be seen to create serious social problems
themselves. And in their turn, these
distortions of religion arise when
insufficient attention is given to the
purifying and structuring role of reason
within religion. It is a two-way process.
Without the corrective supplied by religion,
though, reason too can fall prey to
distortions, as when it is manipulated by
ideology, or applied in a partial way that
fails to take full account of the dignity of
the human person. Such misuse of reason,
after all, was what gave rise to the slave
trade in the first place and to many other
social evils, not least the totalitarian
ideologies of the twentieth century. This is
why I would suggest that the world of reason
and the world of faith – the world of
secular rationality and the world of
religious belief – need one another and
should not be afraid to enter into a
profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good
of our civilization.
Religion, in other words, is not a problem
for legislators to solve, but a vital
contributor to the national conversation. In
this light, I cannot but voice my concern at
the increasing marginalization of religion,
particularly of Christianity, that is taking
place in some quarters, even in nations
which place a great emphasis on tolerance.
There are those who would advocate that the
voice of religion be silenced, or at least
relegated to the purely private sphere.
There are those who argue that the public
celebration of festivals such as Christmas
should be discouraged, in the questionable
belief that it might somehow offend those of
other religions or none. And there are those
who argue – paradoxically with the intention
of eliminating discrimination – that
Christians in public roles should be
required at times to act against their
conscience. These are worrying signs of a
failure to appreciate not only the rights of
believers to freedom of conscience and
freedom of religion, but also the legitimate
role of religion in the public square. I
would invite all of you, therefore, within
your respective spheres of influence, to
seek ways of promoting and encouraging
dialogue between faith and reason at every
level of national life.
Your readiness to do so is already implied
in the unprecedented invitation extended to
me today. And it finds expression in the
fields of concern in which your Government
has been engaged with the Holy See. In the
area of peace, there have been exchanges
regarding the elaboration of an
international arms trade treaty; regarding
human rights, the Holy See and the United
Kingdom have welcomed the spread of
democracy, especially in the last sixty-five
years; in the field of development, there
has been collaboration on debt relief, fair
trade and financing for development,
particularly through the International
Finance Facility, the International
Immunization Bond, and the Advanced Market
Commitment. The Holy See also looks forward
to exploring with the United Kingdom new
ways to promote environmental
responsibility, to the benefit of all.
I also note that the present Government has
committed the United Kingdom to devoting
0.7% of national income to development aid
by 2013. In recent years it has been
encouraging to witness the positive signs of
a worldwide growth in solidarity towards the
poor. But to turn this solidarity into
effective action calls for fresh thinking
that will improve life conditions in many
important areas, such as food production,
clean water, job creation, education,
support to families, especially migrants,
and basic healthcare. Where human lives are
concerned, time is always short: yet the
world has witnessed the vast resources that
governments can draw upon to rescue
financial institutions deemed "too big to
fail". Surely the integral human development
of the world’s peoples is no less important:
here is an enterprise, worthy of the world’s
attention, that is truly "too big to fail".
This overview of recent cooperation between
the United Kingdom and the Holy See
illustrates well how much progress has been
made, in the years that have passed since
the establishment of bilateral diplomatic
relations, in promoting throughout the world
the many core values that we share. I hope
and pray that this relationship will
continue to bear fruit, and that it will be
mirrored in a growing acceptance of the need
for dialogue and respect at every level of
society between the world of reason and the
world of faith. I am convinced that, within
this country too, there are many areas in
which the Church and the public authorities
can work together for the good of citizens,
in harmony with Britain’s long-standing
tradition. For such cooperation to be
possible, religious bodies – including
institutions linked to the Catholic Church –
need to be free to act in accordance with
their own principles and specific
convictions based upon the faith and the
official teaching of the Church. In this
way, such basic rights as religious freedom,
freedom of conscience and freedom of
association are guaranteed. The angels
looking down on us from the magnificent
ceiling of this ancient Hall remind us of
the long tradition from which British
Parliamentary democracy has evolved. They
remind us that God is constantly watching
over us to guide and protect us. And they
summon us to acknowledge the vital
contribution that religious belief has made
and can continue to make to the life of the
nation.
Mr Speaker, I thank you once again for this
opportunity briefly to address this
distinguished audience. Let me assure you
and the Lord Speaker of my continued good
wishes and prayers for you and for the
fruitful work of both Houses of this ancient
Parliament. Thank you and God bless you all!
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