The legitimate, healthy secular status of the State

At a time when a certain western fundamentalism both fears and fuels the idea of a “clash of civilizations”, justifying the military option in Iraq with religious reasons, these remarks from a speech of Pius XII given, in 1958, to the people from the Marche resident in Rome, are of comfort. These are the words of Pope Pacelli: “ There are in Italy those who are agitated because they fear that Christianity will take from Caesar that which is Caesar’s. As if to give to Caesar that which belongs to him, were not a command of Jesus; as if the legitimate, healthy secular status of the State were not one of the principles of Catholic dogma; as if the continual striving to keep distinct, but also, according to the correct principles, united, the two Powers were not one of the traditions of the Church; as if, instead, the intermingling of sacred and profane had not taken place with greater force when a portion of the faithful separated from the Church”.

Pierluca Azzaro