An interesting article by Matthew Taylor of Radio 4's analysis on the current impact that the Roman Catholic Church is having on the political landscape in Britain today.
A new zeitgeist is capturing business people, academics and
political players from both the Left and Right, looking for an ethical
alternative for our time. Their inspiration? Catholic teaching. In many ways
these are difficult times for the Catholic Church. Congregations in England are
still in decline, child abuse scandals around the world have cast a long shadow
and in many areas of policy - from euthanasia to gay marriage - the church's
fixed positions make it sound outdated and out of touch.
Yet in the last couple of months I have received some
intriguing invitations from Catholic friends: one to an event on business
ethics organised by Catholic bishops and featuring some of our most high-profile
corporate leaders. Another to a discussion of the progressive values after the
credit crunch with prominent Labour advisors and Catholic theologians. The
common thread running through these events is a set of ideas going under the
name "Catholic Social Teaching". I set out to understand more about
these ideas, to find out why they are engaging so many different groups of
people right now, and whether their current influence is likely to make any
substantive difference to policy or politics.
Although its roots can be traced back not just to the Bible,
but to the ideas of Aristotle, rediscovered in the 13th Century by St Thomas
Aquinas, the modern expression of Catholic Social Teaching came in an
encyclical - the highest form of papal teaching - titled Rerum Novarum and
issued in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII. The Pope offered the "gift" of
Catholic social thought to a troubled world. He called on the one hand for
compassion for the poor and respect for the dignity of labour and, on the other
hand, for respect for property and the family - all held together by the core
idea of the common good.
