Co należy do cezara, a co do Boga? O polityce przyjaznej człowiekowi

Abstract

This text is a revised version of the paper that was delivered on 31 May 2023 during an online conference entitled: „What belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God? Political Responsibility”. This scientific session was organised by the Catholic Association ‘Civitas Christiana’ and its affiliated Institute of Catholic Social Teaching. The issue of human-friendly politics was signalled in the context of Jesus Christ’ s famous statement: „Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Lk 20:25). The content of the presented thoughts is briefly summarized by the titles of individual paragraphs: „God and Caesar”, „Politics and its reception”, „Person-friendly politics”, „Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s proposal”, „Moral affirmation of rational politics” and „The duty of a morally just policy”. It can be stated that a human-friendly policy (close in meaning to: morally just policy, rational policy, „Christian” policy, politics with a „human” face) is just giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. However, the duty of rendering to God what is due to Him rests with all, both Caesar and Caesar’s subjects. The service for the truth, the right to life, the rights of the family, human dignity, freedom, justice and solidarity constitute the programme, the main guidelines of a human-friendly policy. This program ought to be the subject of Christian and civic responsibility for the common good.