Standards of conduct appropriate to civil society or the workings of a democracy cannot be purely and simply applied to the Church.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The church, inserted and active in human society and in history, does not exist in order to exercise political power or to govern the society.
Churches should not be directly involved in politics.
The church is not a political power; it's not a party, but it's a moral power.
Christians who have influence in political life must feel as individuals responsibility in front of their own faith. And the duty of encouraging laws that are not in contradiction with the Commandments comes within the mission of the Church.
The problem is that you can't impose the church's teachings on all Americans as a matter of law.
The Church, however, is a self-governing society, distinct from the State, having its officers and laws, and, therefore, an administrative government of its own.
Since politics fundamentally should be a moral enterprise, the church in this sense has something to say about politics.
In the ordinary church, it is suppressed by respectability, by a desire to appear better than we really are.
If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied.
The Church has never changed its teaching on the sanctity of human life - it didn't make up a rule for the convenience of a particular time like a rule at a country club as the Governor would have us believe.
No opposing quotes found.