A return to civility

by Editor · August 22, 2012

The Catholic Church around the world is evidently becoming fed up with a lack of civility in public discourse. In the robust world of democratic politics, character assassination, hysterical exaggeration and outright lies are common electoral tools, especially in the United States.

"Alas, many Catholics are guilty of excessive polemic themselves."

In South Africa, too, the style of politics that draws from the poisoned well of calumny and odium is becoming increasingly dominant, to the detriment of sound democratic progress. Those who five years ago were ready to �kill for Zuma� now describe their erstwhile hero in the same terms which once provoked them to the point of threatening violence.

The demonisation of political opponents has widely displaced vigorous debate. In the age of the soundbite and the angry tweet, misrepresentation and prejudice and smear and slur are increasingly accepted as valid forms of political expression, especially during electoral campaigning.

Both in South Africa and in the United States these intellectually and ethically corrupt genres of politics will take centre stage over the next few months, as the African National Congress prepares to install its (and, by extension, the country�s) new leadership, and American voters go to the polls to elect their president.

In politics the expression of opinions can become overheated. It is therefore welcome that the Knights of Columbus�the US counterpart of our Knights of Da Gama�have drafted a petition �to give voice to Americans� desire for civility in public discourse�, responding to a recent survey which found that nearly 80% of Americans are �frustrated with the tone of politics today�.

Alas, many Catholics are guilty of excessive polemic themselves.

For Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York this came to a head when some Catholics angrily demanded that President Barack Obama be barred from a traditional Catholic fundraising dinner involving the leading presidential candidates, because they believe that some of the president�s policies are incompatible with Church doctrines.

Responding to these calls, Cardinal Dolan wrote that �the teaching of the Church, so radiant in the Second Vatican Council, is that the posture of the Church towards culture, society, and government is that of engagement and dialogue�.

He added: �I�m encouraged by the example of Jesus, who was blistered by his critics for dining with those some considered sinners; and by the recognition that, if I only sat down with people who agreed with me, and I with them, or with those who were saints, I�d be taking all my meals alone.�

Cardinal Dolan, a severe critic of some of Mr Obama�s policies, is providing a most admirable example of graciousness in the public square.

Likewise, Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Washington, must be commended for the sensible way in which he set out the Church�s opposition to the legalisation of gay marriage.

Instead of ascribing a sinister agenda to proponents of gay marriage, he described them as being �often motivated by compassion�. While fundamentally disagreeing with them, he asked that public dialogue on the issue be marked �by civility and clarity�.

Moreover, he emphasised that �the Catholic Church has no tolerance for the misuse of this moment to incite hostility toward homosexual persons or promote an agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of their human dignity�.

This is an important statement which must be applied to other arenas of debate: any method of argumentation that is �hateful and disrespectful of human dignity� cannot be tolerable to the Catholic Church.

Indeed, the French bishops have become so concerned by the way in which some Catholics enter into public debate that they felt compelled to issue a countrywide prayer not only for issues of general Catholic concerns��such as euthanasia and same sex marriage��but also that Christian values might find expression without, as the French bishops� spokesman put it, �being trampled by Catholic fundamentalist groups [who] have taken radical positions, making the Catholic community a caricature and damaging its position�.

The increasing calls for civility and respect merit amplification.