Notre Dame scholar speaks on 'Faith and Politics'

LAKEVILLE — He strode into The Hotchkiss School chapel like a character straight out of Central Casting. Looking gray, dignified and every bit the important priestly scholar he is, the Rev. Richard P. McBrien delivered a thought-provoking, one-hour lecture Friday evening, April 11, on what has become one of the meatiest bones of contention in the modern age: "Faith and Politics in Our Time."

Invited by Hotchkiss’s philosophy and religion department, which sponsored the event along with the Church of St. Mary in Lakeville, McBrien immediately took note of how the current presidential campaign provokes intense curiosity in the subject.

"They asked me to lecture about faith and politics. You may have noticed there is a special interest in it every four years," McBrien quipped.

But he emphasized that even as a Catholic priest and a professor at the University of Notre Dame, he did not intend to lecture this audience about matters pertaining solely to his church. Instead, he would address faith and politics in the generic sense of "catholic" (all-encompassing).

At their best, McBrien said, faith and politics recognize that "peace is the work of justice" and that "without justice there can be no peace" — an axiom repeated often by the late Pope John Paul II.

"Unfortunately, the relationship between [faith and politics] is not always harmonious because they don’t always operate at their best," McBrien added.

He probably raised a few eyebrows when he opined that, while faith and politics are seen by some as inextricably connected, he firmly believes "it’s possible to reach a moral conclusion independent of religion. In other words, it’s possible to be moral without being religious. There are too many religious people who don’t understand that. Morality does not require any clear relationship to a religious tradition or to divine intervention."

In enunciating five principles he saw as critical to that occasional alliance, McBrien cautioned that the relationship between church and state must be one of cooperation for the public good: "In their proper spheres, they are independent and autonomous. The watchword is cooperation. The Catholic Church is more at home with James Madison’s movable wall of separation [of church and state] than Jefferson’s immovable wall."

"Do we have a right to take sides in politics?" he asked. "Yes, but is it prudent? No." But McBrien quickly added that "there is no more effective way of preaching and teaching than by our own example."

A Connecticut native, McBrien is a syndicated columnist and the author of more than 20 books, including such works as "Catholicism," "The Encyclopedia of Religion," and the "Harper-Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism." He has occasionally differed with the Catholic Church on some of its teachings, resulting in the refusal of a handful of Catholic newspapers to run his column.

Question topics from the audience ranged from illegal immigration to capital punishment, the upcoming U.S. visit of Pope Benedict XVI and reconciling the Catholic Church’s position against artificial birth control with the realities faced by millions of believers. McBrien tackled most of the questions head-on, but steadfastly refused to answer the one about birth control.

"I don’t mean to sound dismissive," McBrien said. "But I take your question as a statement."