The Church and Politics

Much has been made of the influence, some would say 'interference', of the Catholic Church in the healthcare debate because of the outspoken defense of the right to life and freedom of conscience protections sought by the U.S. Bishops in the healthcare bills in Congress. Undoubtedly these same hypocrites would have been glad to have their pictures taken with any Bishop who would have ignored these rights and simply supported the bill. But is it wrong for the Church to interfere in the political arena? Here is today's quote from Bishop Sheen and what he says to the subject,

If by interference in politics is meant judging or condemning a philosophy of life which makes the party, or the state, or the class, or the race the source of all rights, and which usurps the soul and enthrones party over conscience and denies those basic rights for which this war was fought, the answer is emphatically Yes! The Church does judge such a philosophy. But when it does this, it is not interfering with politics, for such politics is no longer politics but Theology. When a State sets itself up as absolute as God, when it claims sovereignty over the soul, when it destroys freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, then the State has ceased to be political and has begun to be a counter-Church.

From Characters of the Passion