Bishops should not seek salvation in politics, says Vatican cardinal

March 03, 2016

It is the task of the laity, and not of bishops, to take an active part in the political life of Latin American nations, Cardinal Marc Ouellet said in a March 1 address.

“Guided by the patrimony of the social doctrine of the Church,” the laity have their own “freedom and responsibility” in this area, the prelate said at a meeting of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, of which he is president.

Bishops, he added, know well that they should not seek salvation in politics and should not be ensnared in political dealings.

Cardinal Ouellet, who also serves as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, went on to speak about the relation between justice and charity in Pope Benedict’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est and described mercy as a “privileged path of the new evangelization.”

 

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Further information:

• Da laici in politica (L’Osservatore Romano, p. 7)