The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 291: The Political Community and the Church (2025)

Episode Date: October 18, 2025

We take a look at what the Catechism teaches about the Church in relation to political communities. Every institution has their own vision of what it means to be human, which shapes their policies. Because the Church knows the truth, that every person is made in the image and likeness of God, the Church must weigh in to ensure that the dignity of the human person is at the forefront of political decisions and policies. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2244-2257. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in New Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 291. We're reading paragraphs 2244 to 2257. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting

ascensionpress.com slash CIY. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today, day 291, we're coming to the end of commandment number four. This is the last little section. We have three quick paragraphs and then a bunch of little nuggets. So we're going to talk all about that today in paragraphs 2244 to 2257. We're looking at the political community and the church. And so, yes, of course, we talked yesterday about the duties of citizens. And so there's plenty of duties of citizens. We have the duties of civil authorities we talked about the day before. But today we're looking at this. How do we see the church in relation to political communities? How do we see political communities? So what are their limits and what should be

their guiding points? We only have three paragraphs on this. And yet these three paragraphs are quite powerful, I believe. Once again, we affirm and assert the right to exist of every institution because every institution has, is inspired, at least implicitly, it says in 2244, by a vision of man and his destiny. That's every, every organization, every institution has a vision of what it is to be human and what it is and what is the goal of being human. And we recognize that when an institution lacks a true and authentic, a comprehensive view of what it is to be human and of the destiny of that human being or of humanity itself. There's always going to be a lack. There's always going to be a distortion. And so because of that, we pay attention to those things.

And secondly, we also recognize that because of that, the church can never fully endorse any one particular view of the human person that is not comprehensive and that is not completely adequate it when it comes to reality, right? Also, the church does have a say in the sense that the church has the right to weigh in on matters of political consequence, right? The church does get to weigh in on this because the church has a lot to offer. The church has a truth to offer. The church has a vision of the human person that is adequate and that is comprehensive. And so because of that, church must weigh in, but also the church must weigh in as church, not as another political entity. Does that make sense? Hopefully all those words made sense, but that's what we get today

in paragraphs 2244 to 2257. In order to launch into that, let us launch into the Father's heart first and we pray. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you. We ask you to please come and meet us in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, with your Holy Spirit, guide us with your Holy Spirit so that we can have a true and comprehensive and adequate anthropology and understanding of what it is to be human and our destiny. Lord God, help us not only see. others in a true and clear way. Help us to recognize the dignity and the greatness you've given to us just in ourselves as we come before you now. Lord, God, remind us, remind us that you've called us to be your children, adopted children by the power of your Holy Spirit. And help us to see you

as our Father. Help us to see every person as one who has been beloved and lovingly created by you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father. and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This is Day 291. We're reading paragraphs 2244 to 2257. The political community and the church. Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer.

The Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired truth about God and man. Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology, since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny, as history shows. The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community.

She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen. It is a part of the church's mission to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. The means, the only means she may use, are those which are in accord with the gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances. In brief, honor your father and your mother. According to the Fourth Commandment, God has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents,

and those whom he has vested with authority for our good. The conjugal community is established upon the covenant and consent of the spouses. Marriage and family are ordered to the good of the spouses, to the procreation, and the education of children. Gaudi Metspez states, The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life. Children owe their parents respect, gratitude, just obedience,

and assistance. Filial respect fosters harmony in all of family life. Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children in the faith, prayer, and all the virtues. They have the duty to provide as far as possible for the physical and spiritual needs of their children. Parents should respect and encourage their children's vocations. They should remember and teach that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus. Public authority is obliged to receive. the fundamental rights of the human person and the conditions for the exercise of his freedom. It is the duty of citizens to work with civil authority for building up society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. Citizens are obliged in conscience not to follow the

directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order. As the apostles stated, we must obey God rather than men. Every society's judgments and conduct reflect a vision of man and his destiny. Without the light, the gospel sheds on God and man, societies easily become totalitarian. All right. There we have it. Paragraphs 2244 to 2257. This is remarkable. I think I just love the fact that here is the catechism in paragraph 2244 and following, right, that highlights this reality. The fact that every institution has a certain vision of what it is to be human, a certain vision of this is what. what human beings are and what it is to thrive as human beings of where we have our origin and

where we have our destiny. And so here's a paragraph 2244 that says every institution is inspired at least implicitly, right? They might not even know it. But they have a vision of man and his destiny from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. What does that mean? Well, imagine that you are a materialist, right? So you believe that all there is is just matter. So there is no God, there's no spirit, there's no life beyond this life. There's just stuff, right? So you're strict materialist. Well, you believe then that the origin of man is accidental. You believe that what human beings are are simply, you know, highly evolved apes, you know, highly evolved single cell organisms that have just come to this

place. And our destiny is to become space dust. I mean, that's it. Now, someone could say, that's amazing. You come from space dust. Incredible. And you get to go back to be space dust. Well, I guess, but if space dust is just an accident too, then there's nothing remarkable about that. And so you'll treat human beings and enact policy based off of what? Well, based off of this particular vision, that humanity is simply a cosmic accident, that this whole world, this whole existence is a cosmic accident, and that our destiny is simply to go back into oblivion. So that is a vision of man that will shape the way you'll enact policy. And so because of that, the church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against the inspired truth about God and man. The inspired truth that the Catholic Church gets to offer to the world that says, actually, we are more.

We're more than space dust. We're more than a cosmic accident. We have a destiny greater than simply going back into oblivion, that you've come from God, you're made in God's image. and the destiny of humanity is to return to God, that there is a way to live that is an accordance with nature, not just kind of, the reality, of course, is this, is if there is no God, there is no such thing as right and wrong, right? There's no such thing as good or evil.

All there is is utilitarianism or opinion. Like really, all there is is what works or my preference. That's it. And so you'd say, why should we do this and not that? Why would this be wrong and that other thing be right? And the only answer an atheist could offer is not because it's innately right or innately wrong, but because, oh, it doesn't work like it's not utilitarian. So we have to take care of each other, not because it's the right thing to do,

but because it will help us live as a society longer. So it's utilitarian. Or it's because what I prefer. It's my particular vision of the human person simply prefers this. My opinion says that I would like it for us to work together more than I would like. for us not to work together, right? And so not because it's right or wrong, but because either it works or because I prefer it. And that is an incredibly, incredibly limited perspective on reality. That's one of the reasons why the church goes on to say in paragraph 2244. It says,

societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God, again, this not recognizing the vision the church offers, are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology. I mean, to even consider this, we maybe have mentioned this before, but here's a declaration of independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal

and endowed by the creator by certain and alienable rights, etc., right? So the first part of that, we hold this to be self-evident. All men are created equal. I don't know how many times I repeat this again and again. That is not self-evident. It is not even close,

not even remotely close to being self-evident. that all human beings are created equal. There's nothing further from the truth. I mean, this most basic, even physically. Some people are taller, some are shorter. Some are healthier. Some are more sickly. Some are stronger.

Some are weaker. When it comes to intellect, some are smarter, some are less smart. Right? When it comes to even morality, some are good. There's some good people just, they seem like, wow, you just kind of automatically better than others who don't act morally. It is not self-evident that we're all created equal. Unless, again, here's it says here, paragraph 2244, unless you're borrowing that idea from

Christianity, unless you're borrowing that from an ideology or a profession of faith that we have that says, actually, it is part of revealed religion that every human being is mainly God's image and likeness. So they borrowed this from some ideology and some profession of faith, and that profession of faith is what we bring to the world. It goes on to say, since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good or evil, they arrogate to themselves, themselves in explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny as history shows. Again, that recognition that the last paragraph, the last nugget today, 2257, says, without the light, the gospel sheds on God and man, societies easily become totalitarian.

Why? Why? Because it's not a matter of saying, this is good or evil. It's a matter of saying, no, this is what works or this is what I prefer. Therefore, someone has to enforce that. You're not appealing to a greater law that's greater than all of us. You're not appealing to a vision of man that's greater than all of us. You're simply appealing to either one person's or a group of people's vision, that

utilitarian vision or that preference vision. That makes sense. I just think it's so powerful. Therefore, paragraph 2245 says the church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community. And again, that's why the church is, yeah, is separate. Now, separate, not because we can't weigh in, but separate because we need to stay in some ways above the fray and around the fray so we can contribute to the fray. Does that make sense?

The church cannot be silent when it comes to political decisions. The church cannot be silent when it comes to offering a vision for the human person and offering principles that that can wisely guide the course of a civil society. The church can't be silent because if you have truth to be offered. To not offer that truth is an act of cruelty. To not offer that truth that you have is, yeah, is, is cruel. If I know that the road up ahead is, is washed out and that the bridge has been collapsed. And I don't tell someone that. Then to not tell them that is, is cruel. The church because of a commission and competence is not to be confused in any way with the political community, she is what?

She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. The church has to continue to remind the world that all life, all human life, is equal from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. And we're going to talk about this, obviously beginning tomorrow when it comes to the Fifth Commandment. But the church has to remind our world and remind our civil societies of this deep and profound truth, of the dignity of every human being. and that even if we disagree on our origins and in our destiny, what the nature of man is

is either that we're made in God's image and likeness or that we're simply cosmic accident. So going on to paragraph 2246, it is part of the church's mission to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. And that it's just, it's part of our mission. It's part of our mandate to pass moral judgments. even in matters related to politics. Now, sometimes in our day and age, people get upset about that reality, but then you have to

stop and ask the question, oh, we're, I don't be sassy about this, but, oh, were you really upset when the church weighed in and said that slavery was evil? Are you really upset when, when it was Christians are the first ones to actually have abolished slavery? Is, was that Christians overstepping their bounds? Or should Christians have actually contributed to this changing, bypassing a moral judgment on society that said slavery is fine, slavery is even a good. It was Christians who said, it's not, and we're actually going to bring that to bear

on the world around us. Then we just need to keep that in mind. It is just so important. It goes on to say, though, the last sentence essentially in paragraph 2246 says the means, and the only means she may use. The church has to pass moral judgments, even in matters related to politics, but the means, the only means she may use are those which are in accord with the gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances. So keep that in mind. The way in

which the church weighs in on these things must be in accord with the gospel. And that is just remarkably, remarkably important. Anyways, gosh, you guys, we made it through the Fourth Commandment tomorrow. I think these sections on the commandments are getting longer and longer in the sense that just, you know, the first four are pretty thorough, as we've noted. But we're going to talk about the Fifth Commandment tomorrow. And so we're going to, we have to begin at the very beginning, which is respect for human life and the witness of sacred history and the dignity of human beings. When we'll go on, talk about, is there times to defend oneself legitimately? What about intentional homicide? All these ways we can sin in the Fifth Commandment. Before that,

before that, it's today. That's tomorrow, you guys. We can wait for tomorrow to be tomorrow. Today, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mac. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. You know,