Doing still better

“Social letter of the Catholic Church in Luxembourg” is the title of the document published in recent days by the Archbishop of the Grand-Duchy, Fernand Franck, with the aim of laying down “guidelines” for the commitment of “Christians as citizens, and of the Church as a vital force of society”. The five-year plan set out in the document recalls, in particular, the commitment of Christians to the dignity of human life and justice, and active participation in social and political life, at the local, national and European level. We present some passages from Archbishop Franck’s Letter. The dignity of the human person is inviolable. The individual, who is conscious of his own greatness, dignity, and the fact that he is made in the image and likeness of God, can have a different view of himself and of his fellowmen. So this consciousness, which transfigures everything, needs to be fostered. This means, in practice, that society has a need for opportunities for reflection and meditation that may permit man to be a person in relation to himself, to his neighbour and to God. In the years ahead the Church intends to create and propose ideas and proposals for reflection in this regard. Nothing is more difficult to define than the term justice. Justice means not levelling down, but establishing fairness in difference. The question of justice finds its proper area of application in politics, which is the privileged sphere to negotiate, formulate and, where necessary, impose common rules. Political action is at the service of social cohesion, and of the common good. The ideal of justice is able to unblock apparently hopeless situations and render actual old norms by discovering their deeper meaning. The question does not already contain its answers. It is founded, instead, on the conviction that we can still do better. The Church supports, both within her own ranks and at the level of society, the organizations that pose the question of greater justice. She founds her own commitment on the proclamation of the faith, on the liturgy and on charitable service.If we conceive politics as the realization of the common good, no member of society should be excluded from it or be left on the margins. Society has a need for people to commit themselves to the common good, the task, in particular, of the political representatives. But apart from the forms of participation already familiar to us, we need to offer suitable opportunities to a civil society increasingly involved in the life of the community. An essential prerequisite for the participation of citizens is the availability of reliable information: a task that does not only belong to the media. Forming public opinion presupposes that the most important contents and the various options be presented with the greatest possible objectivity. The culture of constructive discussion stimulates participation. Ideological and polemical clashes, on the contrary, discourage and lead people to withdraw from the debate. We need to ask ourselves whether, within our society characterized by a profusion of information, there is no way of planning and experimenting new methods to promote a participative political culture of a high level. That means, in practice, that wide participation in the political decision-making process should be promoted at the municipal, national and EU level. Participation should also be promoted within the Church herself which, for her part, will continue to contribute to the formation of a conscious and reasoned opinion on ethical and social questions and to formulate her own point of view within the public debate.