Concept
Catholic Church and politics
Related concepts (5)
Christianity and politics
The relationship between Christianity and politics is a historically complex subject and a frequent source of disagreement throughout the history of Christianity, as well as in modern politics between the Christian right and Christian left. There have been a wide variety of ways in which thinkers have conceived of the relationship between Christianity and politics, with many arguing that Christianity directly supports a particular political ideology or philosophy.
Anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics and/or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestant states, including England, Prussia, Scotland, and the United States, turned anti-Catholicism, opposition to the Pope (anti-Papalism), mockery of Catholic rituals, and opposition to Catholic adherents into major political themes and policies of religious persecution.
Gallicanism
Gallicanism is the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or the state's authority—over the Catholic Church is comparable to that of the pope. Gallicanism is a rejection of ultramontanism; it has something in common with Anglicanism, but is nuanced, in that it plays down the authority of the Pope in church without denying that there are some authoritative elements to the office associated with being primus inter pares ("first among equals").
Christian democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Chief amongst these challenges was reconciling Catholicism with democracy, answering the "social question" surrounding capitalism and the working class, and resolving the tensions between church and state. Christian democrats led postwar Western Europe, building the welfare states and constructing the European Union.
Kulturkampf
Kulturkampf (kʊlˈtuːɐ̯kampf, 'culture struggle') was a fierce conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiastical appointments. A unique feature of Kulturkampf, compared to other struggles between the state and the Catholic Church in other countries, was Prussia's anti-Polish component.