Fr. Wojciech Guzewicz, Poland 1
Dispute over the state: between “a confessional State” and “a secular State”
Abstract For a long time lawyers and politicians have been divided in the sharp dispute over what should be the relation between the state and the Church: “secular state” or “reli- gious state”. Meanwhile, both meanings are vague and sometimes misconstrued. It is known that today are unacceptable extreme solutions: on the one hand “theocracy”, where the Church exercises control over the state, as it used to be over Israel and, on the other hand, a “totally anti-religious state” sometimes occurring in the twentieth century. It seems that the relations between the Church and the State should adopt the principle of the Second Vatican Council, that “the political community and the Church are, on their own territory, independent and autonomous”, and that the Church and the political community will be able to perform their ministry “for the good of all, the better, the more they will lead a healthy cooperation with each other, taking into account the circumstances of time and place”. Keywords: the relations between Church and State in Poland, autonomy of cooperation
Introduction
It is a long time since the lawyers and the politicians have been divided by the strong discussion about how the relationship between the state and the Church should looks like: like “the secular state or like the religious state”. However, both of that names are not clear enough and sometimes there are misunderstood. It is clear that extreme solutions are unacceptable: on the one hand, “theocracy”, where the Church exercises control over the state, as earlier kahal over Israel, and on the other hand “a total anti-religious state” what sometimes happened in the 20th century2.
1 Professor Wojeciech Guzewicz, University Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn; email: wojciech. [email protected] 2 P. Sobczyk, Katolicka koncepcja państwa wyznaniowego, [in:] Państwo wyznaniowe. Doktryna, prawo i praktyka, J. Szymanek (ed.), Warszawa 2011, pp. 113-119; R. Mojak, Zasada autonomii i wzajemnej niezależności oraz współdziałania w stosunkach między państwem a Kościołem i innymi związkami wyznaniowymi, [in:] Polskie prawo konstytucyjne, W. Skrzydło (ed.), Lublin 2008, p. 110 ff.; M. Pietrzak, Prawo wyznaniowe, LexisNexis, Warszawa 2010, p. 232 ff.
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I. Separation of the state and the Church?
Both the Second Vatican Council and the EU’s creators had to face this problem. The concept of separation of state and the Church has been established in the secular theory of the state. However, it turned out that this separation can be also really different: legally pure, hostile and friendly.3 The Council was afraid that the extreme separation of “the secular state” could provoke the appearance of ”the atheistic state”4. It is so often today that a a believer is treated like a schizophrenic, who has split personality: in a private forum, he can believe in God and keep his commandments and laws, but in the public arena, especially in the state, he must strictly be an atheist and obey only state law, even if it was against his religion. For example, he may privately consider abortion, which is a violation of another’s life, like a sin, but in public life, if the state permits killing, and he is a public official, then he hasto kill. To top it all, he is not guilty, but even he has merit for the implementation of the secular law. It must be noted that the law of some states allows believers to apply the conscience clause5, although there is no lack of such turbidity. They think that the law is beyond the doctor’s conscience clause. For example, even if he killed thousands of the unborn, even right before their birth, there is no fault in his conscience6.
II. Proposal for autonomy of cooperation
However, the problems are very serious, the Council proposed a general solution in the form of the autonomy of cooperation. There is not an absolute separation of the state of atheism, which is demanded by whole parties and also by individual atheists. The Council says that “The Church is in no way affiliated with the political community and is not linked to any political system. It is a sign and the defence of the transcendence of the human being. The political community and the Church are, on their own territory, independent and autonomous. However, they serve the
3 M. Sitarz, Zasada równouprawnienia kościołów i innych związków wyznaniowych, ”Kościół i Prawo”, 2015, No. 4, pp. 141-168. 4 Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Declaratio de libertate religiosa Dignitatis humanae (7.12.1965), AAS 58 (1966), pp. 929-946; Polish wording in: Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje, dekrety, deklaracje, Pallottinum, Poznań 2002, pp. 410-421 and Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Constitutio dogmatica de Ecclesia Lumen gentium (21.11.1964), AAS 57 (1965), pp. 5-67; polish wording”, [in:] Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje, dekrety, deklaracje, Pallottinum, Poznań 2002, pp. 104-166. 5 R. Sztychmiler, Spór o klauzulę sumienia w Polsce, ”Kościół i Prawo”, 2015, No. 4, pp. 185-210. 6 K. Lepczyński, Hartman: Lekarze popierający „Deklarację wiary” powinni poszukać pracy w Watykanie,
6 I . ARTICLES personal and social vocation of the same people, and if they are able to cooperate for the good of all, taking into account the circumstances of the place and time, their work will be more efficient. A human is not limited to the mundane order, but he lives in human history, integrally maintaining his vocation to eternal life... The Church uses temporal things as much as it is required by his mission... The Church has to promote and to uplift everything in the human community that is true, good and beautiful. He also respects and supports the political freedom of the citizens and their responsibility... Everywhere and everywhere, let him be obliged to proclaim the faith of true freedom, to teach about his social doctrine, to carry out his task effectively among the people, andto give moral judgment on things that concern the political order, especially when required by the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls”7. The state’s autonomy over the Church cannot denote the negation of the Church, or put it into a private and purely internal forum. The state has to be tolerant of religion and atheists, if one or another do not seriously threaten societies, but cannot favor one at the expense of the other. Moreover, the separation of Church and State is not to be understood as a struggle between them or the superiority of one. The state should be religious, but not churchly. It does not control the Church and also does not listen to it. It is subject to God and His laws, but is not subject to the authority of the Church. There must be positive cooperation between the Church and the state, and the autonomy or independence of the Church and the State in their respective affairs is needed so that each individual who is both a citizen of the State and a faithful Church can fulfill his civic and religious obligations according to his own conscience. The proper and lasting settlement of the relationship between the State and the Catholic Church in Poland will allow for fruitful co-operation not only of individuals, but also of both communities, of the State and of the Church, for the common good8. In the teaching of the Church, the state cannot be “religious” in the sense that it is subject to the institution of the Church or it has been on the same plane with it. But the state and the constitution are not removed from the power of God as the Creator and the refuge of all created reality. The constitution of the state should be autonomous in relation to the institution of the Church, but not independent from religion in general, namely means, from God. This is a clear reference to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
7 Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Constitutio pastoralis de Ecclesia in mundo huius temporis Gaudium et spes (December 7th, 1965), aas 58 (1966), pp. 1025-1115; Polish wording in Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje, dekrety, deklaracje, Pallottinum, Poznań 2002, pp. 526-606 (here citation. KDK 71). 8 W. Guzewicz, Prasa diecezjalna w Polsce północno-wschodniej jako źródło wiedzy o społecznej nauce Kościoła (1989-2009), Ełk 2012, pp. 326-328.
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Lumen Gentium, where is stated: “If the words – the autonomy of the temporal things – are so meaningful that the created things are not dependent on God, and man can use them without referring them to the Creator, then everyone recognizing God senses how false they are. The creation without the Creator disappears. Moreover, the creature itself falls into the darkness by forgetting about God”9. Thus, the lifting of the mortal life from the God is annihilating this life. The separation of the constitution from God’s order deprives it of the power and meaning of it. Moreover, it can be seen that the secularity understood as the autonomy of the civil and political spheres in relation to the religious and ecclesiastical sphere – but not in relation to moral principles – it s a value already recognized and respected by the Church. When confronted with politics with moral principles, the latter, according to the Church, cannot be abrogated, exceptions or compromises cannot be allowed. Faced with these fundamental and inalienable ethical imperatives, believers have to realize that the very essence of moral order depends on the dependence of the integral good of the human person. The primacy of morality over politics has to be preserved. This applies, for example, to legislation on abortion and euthanasia; these documents have to protect the right to life from conception to natural death10.
III. Secular legislation on the autonomy of the state and the Church
The whole problem is shifted by EU to national legislation, but rather to theory, because in practice, various EU factors try to imply state atheism as they may. According to EU treaties, the status of the Church and religious associations is not respected throughout the EU, but rather in the individual Member States11. Polish constitution from 199712 states the autonomy of both institutions, but also friendly cooperation for the common good: “Relations between the state and churches and other religious associations are shaped by respect for their autonomy and the mutual independence of each in their own spheres, as well as the cooperation for the good of man and the common good” (section 25; 3). “Relations between the Republic of Poland and the Catholic Church are defined by an international
9 Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Constitutio dogmatica de Ecclesia Lumen gentium (21.11.1964), AAS 57 (1965), pp. 5-67; Polish wording in Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje, dekrety, deklaracje, Pallottinum, Poznań 2002, pp. 104-166 (here citation. KDK ). 10 J. Krukowski, Kościelne prawo publiczne. Prawo konkordatowe, Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, Lublin 2013, p. 132; H. Misztal, Wprowadzenie do prawa wyznaniowego, [in:] Prawo wyznaniowe, H. Misztal, P. Stanisz (ed.), Wydawnictwo Diecezjalne, Sandomierz, pp. 27-35; A. Białczak, Rozdział między Kościołem a państwem w świetle nauki Kościoła katolickiego, Lublin 1978 ( KUL’s archives). 11 Consolidated Versions of The Treaty on EuropeanUnion and The Treaty on Functioning of The European Union, OJ C 83, 30.3.2010, pp. 1–388;
8 I . ARTICLES agreement concluded with the Holy See and the Law” (section 25; 4). In spite of the terms of autonomy and independence and the cooperation for human’s good and of the common good, there are ever stronger tendencies of different orientations in order to be transformed into the hostility of the state towards the Catholic Church, first and foremost of the Catholic state, and to eliminate the Catholic religion from all fields of public life. And they understand this “secular state” as an atheistic institution13. Therefore, the positive cooperation between the state and the Church leads them to frenzy, even the so-called liberal Catholics 14. They consider this friendly union of the state and the Church a deadly threat to the EU as a whole and to the EU ideology, while referring to the principle of “state neutrality towards religion”. The phrase “neutrality of the state against religion” is unacceptable for Catholics, because it implies an equivocation (logical error). Fr. Czesław Bartnik wrote: “The Constitution and the State is not to be either religion or neutral, but neutral (in Latin neutrum = none of the two). But in fact it is cryptoatism. God exists or doesn’t exist, there is no neutral situation. Even a practical attitude, abstract from the theoretical thesis on the existence of God, is not neutrality, but rather practical atheism”. Bartnik saw more of logical errors like this in the documents referring to the term “neutrality”. This is because Catholics, post members or liberals – each of these groups not only has different views on the life that the constitution is supposed to regulate, but also uses a different language code, although we deal with the same polish language. For example, “the Church” once means “clergy”, the second time the “episcopate”, the third time the “community of all Catholics” (ie all Polish citizens), the fourth time “community of worship”, the fifth time “legacy of the past”. For Catholics it is a religious institution, and for others it is a “community of the wrongdoers”. The scope of the term “state” is similarly mixed: as a political authority, as a public forum, as a nation, as a country, as a community of all citizens (that is, together with the Church), as all administration and all social services. For Catholics, “the state”
13 Cz. Bartnik, Wzmożenie ateizacji Polski,
9 European Journal of Public MAtters N o. 2/2018 means “the highest form of organization of the power of the nation”, and for the rest is “government”15. Next, Fr. Bartnik argued that worldview and religion in the sphere of beliefs cannot be isolated from moral principles, behaviours, actions. The “neutrality of the state” to them could mean neutrality to any pathology. The state cannot be passive towards the great offenses committed under the guise of religion or other social groups. He asked, “Can the state be “neutral” to those pseudoreligies and social groups that are behind the demoralization of society and can they be equitably equated with the Catholic Church? (...).Will such a state prove tolerant to popularizing, for example, pedophilia (“loving children differently”), sadism (“unlimited freedom of expression”) or cannibalism (“feeding differently”). If the proclamation of anything is forbidden, then what criteria? Will it not be neutral?”16. In turn, Fr. Józef Krukowski points out that the concept of a neutral worldview is nonsense from the point of view of the requirements that the democratic state of law should fulfill. He wrote, among others. “(...) each state is made up of three essential components. These are: population, territory and sovereign bodies of public authority. The neutrality of the views of the population living in any state is nonsense. Every human who is a member of the state community, has his own world view, has his conscience and religious beliefs. It is obvious that in every modern society there is greater or lesser religious and philosophical pluralism. However, this pluralism cannot be equated with neutrality. Neutrality of the world view and religion can be said only in relation to state organs. Organs cannot have their own world view or religious convictions. These organisms do not exist for themselves, but are assigned to society”17. In the next part of the lecture, Krukowski argued that the state’s neutrality of religion was in conflict with the tasks of a democratic state. It is the responsibility of the democratic state of law to respect human rights resulting from the inalienable dignity due to the human person. The organs of state’s power of the democratic state of law are thus to serve man in the fulfilment of his rights. One of the basic human rights is the right to religious freedom. From the point of view of the requirements of the democratic state of law, religion cannot be restricted to the purely private sphere of human. In a democratic state, every human being has the right to religious freedom in public life. In other words, both the human who stays in his own home and also in a closed state establishment, such as a soldier in a military facility, has the right to satisfy his religious needs both individually and collectively18.
15 Cz. Bartnik, Neutralność państwa?, “Posłaniec Warmiński”, 1995, No. 9, p. 1. 16 Ibidem. 17 J. Krukowski, Państwo światopoglądowo neutralne?, “Niedziela Podlaska”, 1995, No. 4, p.8. 18 Ibidem.
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IV. Autonomy between religion and life?
The Vatican Council teaches that although there is the autonomy of the institution of the state and the Church, there is no autonomy between religion and life, for the personal being transcends both these plane and binds it to God. The Council teaches: “If the things created and the societies enjoy their own laws and values that are recognized, applied, and ordained gradually by human, then it is in fact right to demand it. It is not just the postulate of the people of our time, but it is in keeping with the will of the Creator, who keeps all things in existence and [...] makes them what they are. [...] But if the words ‘autonomy of temporal things’ mean that the created things are not dependent on God and that man can use them without reference to the Creator, anyone who believes in God feels that these statements are false”19. “Religion is permeated by the whole, also secular, life of the faithful, and leads them to justice and love, especially to those in need”20. However, the Church is open to cooperation with atheists in the state: “The Church, while completely rejecting atheism, sincerely acknowledges that all people, believers and non-believers, should contribute to the proper construction of this world in which they live together; this cannot be done without a sincere and discreet dialogue. However, the Church complains about the discriminating diversity of believers and non-believers, unjustly introduced by some of the leaders of the states, without recognizing the fundamental rights of the human person”21.
Conclusion
In any case, in many countries today, for example in France, the “laissez-faire” cannot be praised, for it may be the same as the “atheistic state” and realizing atheism in all areas of public and personal life. It is now also in Poland that much of the political opposition wants to understand the “secular state” as synonymous with the “atheistic state”, evoking the religion of collective life. It seems that in relation to the Church and state, the principle of the Second Vatican Council should be accepted that “the political community and the Church are each independent and autonomous in their own territory” and that the Church and the political community will be able to perform their ministry “for the better of all, the better they will be able to lead a healthy co-operation with the circumstances of place and time”.
19 KDK 36; see KDK 41. 20 Ibidem, no. 21. 21 Ibidem.
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Bibliography
Sources of law Consolidated Versions of The Treaty on European Union and The Treaty on Functioning of The European Union, OJ C 83, 30.3.2010, pp. 1–388, Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 2 kwietnia 1997 r., Dz. U. Nr 78, poz. 483 z późn. zm. Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Constitutio dogmatica de Ecclesia Lumen gentium (21.11.1964), aas 57 (1965); Polish wording, [in:] Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje, dekrety, deklaracje, Pallottinum, Poznań 2002. Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Constitutio pastoralis de Ecclesia in mundo huius temporis Gaudium et spes (7.12.1965), aas 58 (1966); Polish wording, [in:] Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje, dekrety, deklaracje, Pallottinum, Poznań 2002. Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, Declaratio de libertate religiosa Dig- nitatis humanae (7.12.1965), aas 58 (1966); Polish wording, [in:] Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje, dekrety, deklaracje, Pallottinum, Poznań 2002.
Books, periodicals and other materials Bartnik Cz., Neutralność państwa?,“Posłaniec Warmiński”, 1995, No. 9. Bartnik Cz., Wzmożenie ateizacji Polski,
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