Attitude of the Vatican towards the Authoritarian and Totalitarian State as Seen in the Church Social Teaching
Authors: Rogowska Barbara 
Published: July 2020

The attitude of the Church towards the authoritarian and totalitarian state was originally determined by the fact of existence of the Ecclesiastical State. Its downfall contributed to the change in the optics of the papist policy. Leo XIII initiated open realistic policy. He declared the Church’s readiness to co-exist (co-operate) with any form of government or social system which would not disturb the essential ecclesiastical tasks. The opinion which won was that the objectives to be attained by the Church were beyond systems and politics. This approach allowed to develop a concept, that evangelization activity should be pursued in any socio-political reality, with adapted methods. Acceptance was granted to those state systems which declared that they would defend of the Church’s position, as evidenced by establishment of political relationships between the Holy See and III Reich, fascist Italy, Spain of gen. Franco. On the other hand, the communist (totalitarian) countries were accused of rejecting “the moral norms of co-existence defined by the Church”. One can state that the Vatican offered support to those governments or totalitarian and authoritarian states whose internal and foreign policy agreed with the interests of the Church.

During the pontificate of John XXIII, the Church started to express not only willingness to co-operate with each form of government, but also the need to have respect for other philosophies of life, including the leftist ones. As regards economic and political questions, the communist doctrine was not deprecated, unless in its extreme version. However, the doctrinal principles of materialism and programmatic atheism were consistently condemned and negated. Also, the Vatican decided to enter into dialogue with the extreme Left. Certainly, the papacy realised that the communist doctrine and totalitarian state in their very essence were enemies of the Church and religion. True evolution in the attitude towards different forms of governments and states was triggered by the II Vatican Oecumenical Council. While political struggle and discussion were avoided, disputes pertaining to philosophical views on life were undertaken. Agreement of any form was refused when atheism was “administratively succoured”.

During the pontificate of Paul VI specific guidelines, principles and rules of procedure were introduced to regulate co-operation with totalitarian communist states. In order to ensure functioning of the Church in totalitarian systems, the Vatican resigned from any polemics as related to capitalism and communism. In turn, the Church demanded from totalitarian regimes to cease imposing the totalitarian world-view on the society. And thus, the Church’s fight for the Christian outlook on life was not given up.

Depending on internal and external socio-political situation, and also on the form of the State and government concerned, the Church defined different conditions indispensable to be satisfied for its successful functioning. The evangelization mission was given superiority.