Archbishop Pell on Democractic Personalism

“Democracy is never unqualified.”

A point well taken, if we understand it in context:

Democracy is never unqualified. We are used to speaking of ‘liberal democracy’ which as currently understood is a synonym for ‘secular democracy’. In Europe there are parties advocating ‘Christian Democracy’. Lately there has been interest in the possibility of ‘Islamic democracy’. These descriptors do not simply refer to how democracy might be constituted, but to the moral vision democracy is intended to serve.

This is especially true in the case of secular democracy, which some insist is intended to serve no moral vision at all. But as Pope John Paul argues: ‘The value of democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes.’ Democracy is not a good in itself. Its value is instrumental and depends on the vision it serves.

Pell is of course correct. Democracy is a force like any other that embodies the values of those who participate. Pell goes on to describe some of the pitfalls of “secular democracy” while offering a substitute of “democratic personalism” that in essence merges the idea of democracy with the value of the human person as a paramount good.

An excellent idea; one that finds its first roots in a Thomistic tradition. Whether or not secular culture is willing to accept this first principle of human dignity remains to be seen. It is a rallying cry nonetheless for those defending the culture of life, but not necessarily the solution.

Time will tell the tale. There is a great debate raging in Australia concerning the direction and purpose of the individual within civil society. Too bad we can’t have that honest cultural debate here in America without resorting to the polemics and hyperbole for which we seem to be famous.