Activism

The responsibility of the congregation leader is thus also a responsibility for society in general. This is not to say that in the spirit of clericalism he interferes in everything, even where he is not at all competent; but that he does involve himself and his community in those important questions of society where the Christian message itself, not partisanship of any kind, unambiguously requires it. This is less frequently the case than those people think who, following their (right or left) party line, want to bring the Church into the debate on the day's social and political questions, turn the Church itself into a political party and offer a specifically Christian “answer” to everything that comes up. But it is the case much more often than is supposed by those who would prefer to see the Church and its leaders once again confined to the sacristy, cult, private devotion and the realm of the subjective. The Church then, for all its inward unity, is not an encapsulated cult organization, screened off from the world. It is an open Church, aware of its obligations to the public at large and the other Christian churches—but also to the unchurched Christians, to the church of those who profess no church, to mankind generally. And it is the congregational leader who has the public responsibility—although it is shared by all especially in this matter—for seeing that the Church is and remains such a community of committed love.—Why Priests?, pages 106-107