I just watched a BBC report on child-selling in Franco’s (and post-Franco) Spain. Of course at least some members of the Catholic church were involved. After all they handled “child services” in those days.
Further, elsewhere, I read something about the Church preferring a form of civil government based on family votes (Papa gets six votes including one for Mama and each of the four kids). Sort of “corporatism” as I understand the term.
I suppose people have spent some time noodling on this. **What is the ideal form of civil government according to Church teachings? **
I have never heard of what you describe.
But you might want to look at what is happening in modern-day Poland, that some say is turning into a theocracy with the consent of its people. Abortion is strictly banned and the minister of health has proposed registering pregnant women to detect those whose pregnancies have been terminated. Public schools teach mandatory catechism classes. The Polish pharmacists’ union opposes the sale of contraceptives.
Not a question we answer. Civil government is for people to decide upon, preferably with Christian principles of good in mind. How, exactly, they organize themselves is less important. If people really wanted Communism, that’s fine as long as they’re willing to live under it and it doesn’t oppress those who go to the Church. If they want Kings, Presidents, or Anarchists Councils… well, we can work with that, too.
The Church doesn’t, as far as I know, have a doctrine indicating preferred forms of government.
As per family votes, the cases I know of where they were used, it was one vote per family but the person representing the family did not have to be the father; after all, not every family has a father, or the father might not be at home. The vote-takers were religious officials (of the three religions present in the area), with votes being taken by the official of your religion; this ensured both secrecy of vote and that each family would only vote once. The votes were per family, having more kids did not give your vote more weight.
The European Union is a Catholic idea - or, at least, is heavily influenced by Catholic ideas.
As others have pointed out, the Catholic church doesn’t have any teaching on particular forms of government or constitutional structures. But it does have a good deal of social teaching, and various political movements have been influenced to greater or lesser degrees by it. In the second half of the twentieth century, Christian democracy is probably the most significant political movement to have been strongly grounded in Catholic teaching, and the EU has in turn been shaped by Christian democratic principles.
Note, however, that the church was persecuted throughout the Soviet era. Persecution tends to encourage retrenchment in belief. So a specific religious tradition within a specific culture was suppressed for fifty years, or so, and was prevented from taking part in open discussions that surrounded the Second Vatican Council. Suddenly it finds itself with an opportunity to assert power while the most conservative members wield the power to govern it.
Polish Catholicism is Catholic, but it is not representative of all Catholicism–only one branch of Catholicism. It would be an error to extrapolate from the Polish experience to some belief in a “Catholic ideal.” Many Catholics probably would support such actions, but at least as many others would oppose those actions.
As UDS noted, Christian Democrat thinking is rooted in Catholic thinking and has been influential in western Europe and Latin America for many years. It is generally conservative, but with a liberal approach to human rights and social services.
Later thinkers look to the organisation of the early church …
[QUOTE=Acts 2:32]
[sup]32[/sup] All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. [sup]33[/sup] With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all [sup]34[/sup] that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales [sup]35[/sup] and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
[/QUOTE]
This tends to lead to Christan Socialism, another dominant force in the politics of Europe in the recent past.