Chapter One: The Church and politics

15-16 The Vatican's status as a state. Protest the Pope’s case [see here no. 6] was made in more detail by the barrister Geoffrey Robertson in the Guardian here. See responses to his arguments by Austen Ivereigh on CV Monitor blog here and in the Guardian here to which Robertson responds in the Guardian here:

17 – Dignitatis humanae (read here) is Vatican II’s declaration on religious freedom, which called for (a) absence of coercion in matters of religious belief (b) full liberty to believe and worship.

18 Pope Benedict’s address to Parliament at Westminster Hall is here:

19 Vatican welcomes gypsies here and criticises French expulsions here.

22 Church as an international actor. These statistics are taken from ‘Heart speaks unto heart’, the official booklet issued by the British bishops in advance of Pope Benedict’s visit to the UK. Download here.

22 Church as ‘expert in humanity’. The phrase is from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church available here. The Compendium summarises the Church’s position on many of these issues.

23 Advocacy of pathway to citizenship of ‘illegal’ immigrants. See US bishops’ call for ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ here; English and Welsh bishops’ call for regularisation is on p. 4 of their 2008 document, Mission of the Church to Migrants, download here.

24 Britain’s ties with Holy See not contingent on Vatican state. See quote from FCO in Austen Ivereigh’s blog post at America magazine here.

25-29 Church’s presence in the UK. The figures here are taken from ‘Heart speaks unto heart’ (see note to p.22 above), and from presentations and reports by Caritas Social Action Network and Cafod. Download MORI poll on Catholic attendance here and CSAN report, ‘A Common Endeavour’ here.

29-32 Bishops and elections. Download ‘Choosing the common good’ PDF here.

32-35 Church, conscience and politicians. In 1990 Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, chairman of the US bishops’ committee on pro-life activities, wrote: “Where Catholics are perceived not only as treating church teaching on abortion with contempt, but helping to multiply abortions by advocating legislation supporting abortion … bishops may decide that … such Catholics may be warned that they are at risk of excommunication.” But, he went on, the Church “does not want to make martyrs of individuals by punishing them. It’s up to the local bishop to use his best judgement concerning particular cases”: Cardinal John O’Connor, ‘Abortion: Questions and Answers’, in Catholic New York, 14 June 1990, Origins vol. 20 issue 7 (1990). At their June 2004 meeting in Denver, Colorado, the US bishops agreed to disagree over the question of refusing the Eucharist to pro-abortion politicians. “Given the wide range of circumstances involved in arriving at a prudential judgement” on the question, their statement read, “bishops can legitimately make different judgements on the most prudent course of pastoral action. Such decisions rest with the individual bishop in accord with established canonical and pastoral principles”: see ‘US bishops agree to disagree on Communion bans for politicians’, The Tablet, 26 June 2004. The memorandum by Cardinal Ratzinger, ‘Worthiness to receive Holy Communion General Principles’ is here: http://old.usccb.org/bishops/catholicsinpoliticallife.shtml. Cardinal McCarrick quote from Catholic News Service story here.

35-39 What the Church stands for. See summary of Catholic Social Teaching in Austen Ivereigh, Faithful Citizens: a practical guide to Catholic social teaching and community organising (Darton, Longman & Todd 2010) here. The US bishops summarise CST in seven principles here.