Last week we stressed that the Church was indeed independent of State. However, this does not mean that two entities should not cooperate. There is need for cooperation since they both are serving the same audience - the spiritual individual who is living in the society.

The two must therefore work together to ensure that the individual benefits by becoming a better person and by being able to fulfil his responsibilities to his family, community and country and most importantly to fulfil God’s purpose for his life.  The individual has spiritual responsibilities, such as prayer and community worship and providing guidance to those who need it. 

The individual also has civic responsibilities such as payment of taxes, voting and attending community consultations.  The Church must help the individual to fulfil not only his/her spiritual responsibilities but also his/her civic responsibilities. The State must also reciprocate by allowing the individual the space to fulfil spiritual duties.

“The mutual autonomy of the Church and the political community does not entail a separation that excludes cooperation. Both of them, although by different titles, serve the personal and social vocation of the same human beings.

The Church and the political community, in fact, express themselves in organised structures that are not ends in themselves but are intended for the service of man, to help him to exercise his rights fully, those inherent in his reality as a citizen and a Christian, and to fulfil correctly his corresponding duties.

The Church and the political community can more effectively render this service “for the good of all if each works better for wholesome mutual cooperation in a way suitable to the circumstances of time and place”.”

One way of example of the cooperation necessary between the State and the Church is the recognition that “the Church has the right to the legal recognition of her proper identity.

Precisely because her mission embraces all of human reality, the Church, sensing that she is ‘truly and intimately linked with mankind and its history’, claims the freedom to express her moral judgment on this reality, whenever it may be required to defend the fundamental rights of the person or for the salvation of souls.”

“The Church therefore seeks: freedom of expression, teaching and evangelisation; freedom of public worship; freedom of organisation and of her own internal government; freedom of selecting, educating, naming and transferring her ministers; freedom for constructing religious buildings; freedom to acquire and possess sufficient goods for her activity; and freedom to form associations not only for religious purposes but also for educational, cultural, health care and charitable purposes.”

In order to ensure that the relationship between the State and the Church remains harmonious and one which promotes a spirit of communication, consultation and cooperation, there should be set standards that govern their interaction with each other.

“In order to prevent or attenuate possible conflicts between the Church and the political community, the juridical experience of the Church and the State have variously defined stable forms of contact and suitable instruments for guaranteeing harmonious relations.

This experience is an essential reference point for all cases in which the State has the presumption to invade the Church's area of action, impairing the freedom of her activity to the point of openly persecuting her or, vice versa, for cases in which Church organizations do not act properly with respect to the State.”

Next week we move into Chapter nine of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church which discusses the International Community.