Zenit: Benedict XVI's Address to US Bishops on 'Ad Limina' Visit
"The Legitimate Separation of Church and State Cannot Be Taken to Mean That the Church Must Be Silent"

"At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus about the conditions for human flourishing. In America, that consensus, as enshrined in your nation’s founding documents, was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles deriving from nature and nature’s God."

A certain view of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. But not the only conservative understanding of those documents.

"The Church’s witness, then, is of its nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage, or be engaged by, the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation."

What is the basis for the legitimate separation of Church and State? Is the Holy Father speaking from a Catholic point of view or is he adopting an American point of view? I take the Catholic view to be this: the supernatural common good that resides in being a part of the Church is not the same as the temporal common good, and the authority of the Church is not the same as the authority of the secular government.

"Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society. The preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a primary task of the Church in your country; as essential components of the new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical programs at every level."

I think this is a failed strategy and will continue to be a failed strategy if it is understood to be directed primarily at the national level.

Zenit: On the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
"The Unity for Which We Pray Requires Interior Conversion, Both Communal and Personal"