Roman Catholicism

The Routledge Dictionary of Politics, Third Edition

Roman Catholicism, one of the largest of all world religious sects, and with more adherents than any other Christian denomination, has in the past been enormously important in Western politics. As the original faith of medieval Europe the Roman Catholic Church was built deeply into the developing political systems of the First World, and though the Reformation led to a considerable diminution in its importance in those areas, mainly Britain and Northern Europe, where Protestantism prevailed, the politics of countries where the Counter-Reformation succeeded remain deeply imbued with Roman Catholic influences. Latin America, settled by the most determined of the Counter-Reformation states, Spain and Portugal, is almost entirely Roman Catholic, and the church has frequently played a crucial role in the unstable political systems of the region.

Although there can be no doubt that Roman Catholicism is politically most influential, the nature and direction of its influence differs greatly as the actual history of Roman Catholicism varies. In those societies (Latin America, Italy, Poland and Ireland, for example) where it is unrivalled by Protestant or non-Christian religions, the Church has often been closely allied either with governing parties and classes, or has been the major opposition to governing secular élites. Elsewhere Roman Catholicism has tended to correlate with social class and reinforce voting patterns. In the USA and the United Kingdom, for example, Roman Catholics have tended to be of lower social class, and to have voted strongly for left-wing parties, although religion per se has not been the basis for social cleavages.

Yet in the Netherlands Roman Catholics have been of great political importance as one of three basic political sectors which cut across class lines, the others representing, respectively, the Protestants and the ‘secular’ (basically socialist) sectors. Religious cleavages of this form, however, tend to become less important over time. The proportion of Roman Catholics voting for the Labour party in the UK is now not much different from the proportion of members of the Church of England doing so, while the Roman Catholic Church has more or less vanished as a political force in French politics (see Mouvement Républicaine Populaire), and in the Netherlands the two Protestant parties have allied with the Roman Catholic party to become a predominantly middle-class non-denominational Christian party like the German Christian Democratic Union. In those countries where Roman Catholicism is not only the dominant religion but also has special ties with, or influence over, the state, Ireland being one of the most obvious cases, many details of policy are affected, especially those, like abortion, and birth control, which relate to family life and private morality.

The sheer size of the Roman Catholic congregation world-wide, combined with the highly authoritarian and hierarchical nature of the church, has at times made its leader, the Pope, a major figure in world politics, with little power but with the sort of influence seldom held by heads of even the biggest states. As reforming movements such as that in Dutch Roman Catholicism reduce the political power of the Roman hierarchy within the Church, and as church members privately or publicly act in defiance of church teaching, this role may well decline. At the same time the influence of liberation theology has made the Roman Catholic Church in areas of the Third World positively radical, often to the consternation of the authorities in Rome.