The Church and Politics

Introduction: John Henry Newman was canonized a saint by Pope Francis in 2019. In 2026 Pope Leo XIV also made him a Doctor of the Church, meaning that he is one of 38 select few singled out as particularly exemplary in their teaching.

Yet Newman’s teaching is still too little appreciated. He is best known for his works on the nature of faith and reason, but what many people do not know is that Newman also made significant contributions regarding the Church’s life in society and its relation to politics. So here and in future issues we want to showcase some of his thought in this area. His words below are excerpted from a sermon he entitled “Sanctity the Token of the Christian Empire.”

You’ll notice one of the distinctives of his approach is his emphasis on the Church as a true “political” body. Like Jesus himself, Newman calls it a “kingdom.” This is because, like other kingdoms, it is a visible community with its own aims, organization, and way of life—though a way of life very different from the world. In this way he sees the Church as a real alternative society, and he doesn’t mince words, sometimes, for the stark difference he thinks exists between this people and the world.

Of course, just because he’s a Doctor of the Church doesn’t mean you have to agree with him about everything; but you don’t have to agree with him to appreciate the beauty of what he says and the way he calls us all to find our primary identity, not with this or that secular party or platform, but as members of God’s party, the Church. Enjoy.

---------------------------------

When Christ visited His Church in the flesh […] He made it a kingdom or empire, like those four ungodly kingdoms which Daniel saw in vision, to which His Church was successively subjected, and to which His own kingdom succeeded. But though it was as really a kingdom […] it differed in some essential respects from those heathen kingdoms to which the Prophet compares it.

What this great difference is, the text expresses. Kingdoms of this world are supported by weapons of this world; but Christ's kingdom, though a visible temp-oral kingdom, [emphasis added] is in this world, but not of this world, and is maintained by weapons, not carnal, but heavenly […] It is a kingdom which, from first to last, in every age, endures be-cause of the righteousness which is in it.

Earthly kingdoms are founded, not in justice, but in injustice. They are created by the sword, by robbery, cruelty, perjury, craft, and fraud. There never was a kingdom, except Christ's, which was not conceived and born, nurtured and educated, in sin. There never was a state but was committed to acts and maxims which it is its crime to maintain, and its ruin to abandon. What monarchy is there but began in invasion or usurpation? What revolution has been effected without self-will, violence, or hypocrisy? What popular government but is blown about by every wind, as if it had no conscience and no responsibilities? What dominion of the few but is selfish and unscrupulous? Where is military strength without the passion for war? Where is trade without the love of filthy lucre, which is the root of all evil?

But this is the indelible distinction between Christ’s kingdom and all other kingdoms, that […] the life of the Church lies, not in inflicting evil, but in receiving it; not in doing, but in suffering; in all those things which the world despises, as being fitter in themselves to pull down an empire than to build it up; in patience, in simplicity, in innocence, in concession, in passiveness, in resignation. True it is that numberless offences occur in [Christ’s] kingdom; but when its members sin, its original principle is abandoned, and its life is imperilled: on the other hand, by truth, by justice, by mercy, by sanctity, it arose, it gained power, and it keeps it. It awes men into obedience, not by strength of arm, by a soldiery, implements of war, strongholds, silver and gold; for of these it has none: but by its visible tokens of a Divine ministry; by the weapons of God.

When the Church displays her proper gifts, she prospers: when she disuses them, she declines. "Put up again thy sword into his place," said our Lord to St. Peter, "for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." "Lord," said James and John, "wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did? And He turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." We conquer by turning the cheek to the smiter; by repaying good for evil; by praying for the persecutor; by giving to him that asks; by suffering for the feeble; by sheltering the widow and the fatherless; by being champions of the poor; by fortitude, firmness, constancy, disinterestedness, fairness, moderation, nobleness, bountifulness, self-sacrifice, and self-command; by patience in enduring ill, and perseverance in doing well.

Thus the heavenly kingdom rose at the first: thus, and thus only, in spite of its untrue members, which cumber it, is it still maintained […] In truth, so has it been ordered by Divine Providence, that in the Gospel kingdom is instanced a remarkable law of ethics, which is well known to all who have given their minds to the subject. All virtue and goodness tend to make men powerful in this world; but they who aim at the power have not the virtue. Again: virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasures; but they who cultivate it for the pleasure-sake are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because they never can have the virtue.

So is it with the Church of Christ. If she were to seek power, wealth, and honour, this were to fall from grace; but it is not less true that she will have them, though she seeks them not, or, rather, if she seeks them not. For when men see disinterested goodness, and holiness which has no selfish aims, and conscientiousness which is strictly bound by a sense of duty, and faith which sacrifices this world for the next, they cannot help giving to those who display these excellences that which such persons are content to lose, and for which they ask not [emphasis added]—credit and influence. He who withdraws himself, is courted; he who solicits favour, is disdained. Satan offered our Lord the glory of all the kingdoms of the world, and He repelled the Evil One; but He gained from His Father what He refused from the Tempter. So is it with all His followers.+