ABSTRACT
The Catholic Church’s relationship with the political order begins with the Roman Empire and is still being worked out. In the eighteenth century, the democratic revolutions in France and the United States set a new context and posed a new question to an old teaching. The response of Catholicism to democratic polity can broadly be divided into two periods, with the Second Vatican Council being the dividing line. The implacable opposition of Catholic teaching to democracy and human rights eased somewhat with the pontificate of Leo XII. Accompanying the doctrinal legitimation of “social Catholicism” was an organizational or bureaucratic shift in Catholic polity, begun by Vatican II and carried forward by Paul VI after the Council. The pastoral strategies which have been developed in the struggles for human rights and social justice vary with the local conditions. The successful transition to democracy in many countries poses new challenges for the church’s social ministry.
