Church, civil powers for the good of the human community
September 02, 2013 - Ecclesiastical authority and civil power “are called to cooperate for the integral good of the human community”. Pope Francis made the point in a message to Cardinal Kurt Koch president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, on the occasion of the 13th Inter-Christian Symposium in the northern Italian city of Milan, that ended on Friday. The theme of the August 28 – 30 meeting was, “The life of Christians and civil power — historical questions and current perspectives in East and West”, which the Pope said fits well into the framework of the many initiatives organized to commemorate the 17th centenary of the promulgation of the Edict of Milan, the joint-proclamation of February 313 by the Roman emperors Constantine I and Licinius, that permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire. Pope Francis noted that the landmark proclamation opened up new ways for spreading the Gospel and contributed greatly to the birth of European civilization. One of the convictions derived from the study of ways in which the Christian world relates to civil society … is that civil power finds its limits before the law of God, reserving just space for the autonomy of conscience, with the awareness that ecclesiastical authority and civil power are called to cooperate for the integral good of the human community.
| All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©. |