Social Catholicism in an Illiberal World

The Church came late to accepting some basic liberal values, like democracy, human rights and religious liberty, and acknowledging the importance of interreligious dialogue. But once the Second Vatican Council, following Pope John XXIII’s lead in Pacem in Terris, turned its back on anti-modernism, the Church became one of the primary promoters of the liberal order, defending human rights, promoting democracy, advocating for equitable socio-economic development and taking the lead on both ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.

Today we must ask: What will the social teaching and pastoral ministry of the Church become in confrontation with an illiberal world politics in which autocrats and tyrants are in the ascendant, where universal human rights are abused and denied, where economic wealth grows ever more unequal, where treaties are broken and the rule of law ignored, where refugees and economic migrants become a stateless underclass, where religion is invoked for nationalistic purposes and the essential demands of justice are scorned?


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