← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Hilaire Belloc
Thread ID: 18187 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-05-10
2005-05-10 18:59 | User Profile
In the article The new spirit of Germany, Nicholas Boyle explains how much Benedict's German nationality influences his outlook on the world and the church. There's one quote in particular of Benedict XVI(then known as Ratzinger) on the issue of the European Union and the issue of regionalism and local identities altogether:
** [url]http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/register.cgi/tablet-01023[/url]
ââ¬ÅSupranational political, economic and legal institutions are necessary, though these cannot have the aim of building up a super-nation, but on the contrary should restore to Europeââ¬â¢s individual regions in a strengthened form their own character and importance. Regional, national, and supranational institutions should interact in such a way that centralism and particularism are equally excluded.ââ¬Â **
This certainly reflects a traditional Catholic attitude towards the issue, that is the call for a balance between loyalty to ones particular nation/tribe/community/etc. and loyalty and concern for all mankind. Catholicism is both particularist and universalist, and it's wrong to judge it purely from one perspective or the other.