Cardinal Bertone lauds Christian activism, raps class warfare
March 26, 2012
The Church and the state have a shared duty, “each according to its specific mission, in protecting and promoting the fundamental rights of each person,” the Vatican’s Secretary of State told an audience in Mexico on March 25.
Speaking at a dinner in the city of Leon, where he was accompanying Pope Benedict on his visit to Mexico, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that one of the most fundamental human rights is that of religious liberty, which “goes much further than mere freedom of worship.” He urged all diplomats to protect and expand the freedom of belief and the rights of conscience.
Underlining the Church’s respect for honest civic activism, Cardinal Bertone said that political work should be “a praiseworthy and ceaseless endeavor in support of citizens, and not become a struggle for power or an imposition of rigid ideological systems, which so often result in the radicalization of wide sectors of the population.”
The cardinal acknowledged that fallible human beings always fall short of the ultimate goals of Christian activism, and their efforts sometimes produce questionable results. However, he said, “If this mission has been tainted in some way, that does not tarnish the splendor of the Gospel.”
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