9 - Catholicism and liberal democracy

Summary

It is only a little over five decades since Sidney Hook stated, “Catholicism is the oldest and greatest totalitarian movement in history.” Some years after Hook's remark, Paul Blanshard declared, “You cannot find in the entire literature of Catholicism a single unequivocal endorsement by any Pope of democracy as a superior form of government.” Much has happened – both in theory and in practice – to mitigate the suspicion of the inherent authoritarianism of Roman Catholicism on the part of Americans of Protestant, Jewish, and secular backgrounds. Yet there is still a lingering suspicion that there remains what Weber called an “elective affinity” between a hierarchical church organized around a leader not popularly elected and authoritarianism in politics, a basic opposition between Catholicism and liberal democracy. While the stereotyped thinking of a Hook or a Blanshard receives little credence today, it may still be useful to examine the historical and contemporary record on the relation of Catholicism and democracy in order to arrive at a more nuanced view.

This chapter will begin by reviewing that relationship historically, sketching patterns of ecclesial theory and practice in the early church and the medieval period, followed by discussions of the defensive centralization of church governance that took place during and after the Reformation, of the church's reaction to the Enlightenment and to continental liberalism, and of the new tendencies of the last hundred years in the social teachings of the church. Second, the emergence of the Christian Democratic movement will be outlined.