Reflections of a Cardinal

December 2003

Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez de Maradiaga, the Cardinal Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (in Honduras), gave the Tablet’s annual lecture in London on 31 October. Cardinal de Maradiaga is a specialist in Catholic social doctrine, a leading advocate for social justice in Latin America and a staunch critic of unregulated globalisation.

In the lecture Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez made several points which are worth reflecting on:

• The opportunity for greater inter-relatedness and greater solidarity has not been realised so far with increased globalisation.
  The rich are globalised while the poor face lower salaries and less welfare; while goods flow freer and faster, a host of new obstacles impedes the free movement of people.
• “Globalisation of solidarity” is required: a momentum in which communion increases in step with communication.
• Now that Latin American governments are civilian-democratic, the challenge for the popular movements in the Church is to bring an ethical sense into politics, to teach a sense of the common good.
• The political commitment of liberation theology has not weakened the Church. “This is something we are accused of, especially by politicians. They say, ‘You’ve lost adherents because you got involved in politics.’ But I say, what does that mean, to get involved in politics … One of our tasks is to demand that commitment of those who are confirmed, to invite them to participate, to assume the mission of the faithful. For this committed lay people are really necessary.”
• It is necessary for higher Church authorities to devolve power wherever possible onto lower ones and to collegiality, “which means that the college of bishops must play a key part in the government of the Church, with and under the pope”.
• It is necessary to create a culture of peace at a time when there has been a regression to a culture of war and death.
  The missionary dimension of the Church must not be neglected in favour of maintenance.
  We have to reach the political world with the insights of Catholic social teaching – because changes have to come through politics and democracy – and the ervice of the common good.

At a time when some Australians are becoming increasingly cynical about our capacity to effect social policy or political action, and sense a growing chasm between their personal beliefs (for example regarding the compassionate and just treatment of asylum seekers) and the government’s response to those issues, it is timely to reflect on these thoughts. In particular, it may be sobering to reflect upon the following matters:

• What is our place in the world church?
• What is the place of politics in the church?
• What is the link between the political world and Catholic teaching in Australia?
• What are we, as individuals, and as a church doing to enliven that link?

The Tablet’s article on that lecture can be accessed at http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/archive_db.cgi?tablet-00809