English
There is a need for collaboration between lawful state authority and the Church authority. In a pluralistic society, Christians cooperate with all people of goodwill and contribute to the functioning of the legal institution of the state,” said the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference Archbishop Stanislaw Gądecki, during a conference under the title „The State-Church relations that Poland needs today. How much autonomy, how much collaboration?”. The Conference was held at the Warsaw Archbishops’ House by Catholic News Agency (KAI) in cooperation with the Institute of Political Science and Administration at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (UKSW).
In his lecture entitled „Church and State. Autonomy and Collaboration,” the President of the Polish Episcopate said that as regards the Polish concordat – what could be achieved is the resultant of what was included in Gaudium et Spes and later in the rule of autonomy and benevolent cooperation. „If something in the state is to work, there needs to be benevolent cooperation,” he stressed.
Archbishop Gądecki pointed out that at the root of any theory of the relationship between the Church and the state is the response of the Lord Jesus: „Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Matthew 22:21). „The Lord Jesus legitimizes political power, and at the same time limits its jurisdiction to regulating the material basis of life,” he noted.
He added that „the positive law and government actions or judicial rulings cannot express God’s will. They enjoy only the authority in which human, fallible competence functions. Any positive law and decisions made cannot violate human dignity and fundamental rights.” – He stressed.
Referring to Pope Leo XIII, Archbishop Gądecki noted that in terms of the relationship between the state and the Catholic Church, there must be a harmonious relationship between the two. „It is about the coherence of the things that concern material and spiritual matters.
The state essentially serves what falls under the temporal welfare. Therefore, the state’s task is to take care of the temporal affairs of citizens. The Church, on the other hand, is organized in such a way as to respond to the spiritual needs of its faithful; to care for the spiritual welfare of the temporal and eternal of a person, as well as society,” he stressed.
The President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference also pointed out that „there is a need for cooperation between lawful state power and ecclesiastical authority,” and „Christians cooperate with all people of good will in a pluralistic society, contributing to the functioning of the lawful institution of the state.”
Press Office of the Polish Bishops” Conference
Translated by s. Amata Nowaszewska / Office for Foreign Communication of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
