(Posted Acton Institute in http://www.institutoacton.com.ar/articulos/gzanotti/artzanotti77.pdf)
Winston Churchill says in the preface to his History of England (1) "... Unlike the rest of Western Europe, which still retain the imprint and legal tradition and system of Roman government, English-speaking peoples have formed at the end of the period covered by this volume, a body of principles legal and democratic one might almost say that survived the rise and attacks of the French and English empires. Parliament, trial by jury, the local government and local citizens until the early of a free press can be seen already, even in primitive form in the days when Christopher Columbus set sail is rumo the Americas. "
In this regard it is noteworthy that the liberal return policy, which many are located in the French Revolution and the Protestant spirit in a case against Catholicism (this, repeated until exhaustion Catholics who practically defined by its anti-liberalism mentally and are located at the time of the Quanta cura) is actually an evolutionary institutional sediment, mainly British origin, prior to the Reformation and the French Revolution, which fueled the spirit of the 13 American colonies before its unification in 1787. Benedict XVI
never ignored this. His understanding of the Anglo-Saxon institutions as pontiff was evident especially in his visit to the U.S. and we discussed it at the time (2), see also de Diego Serrano Redonet, Tocqueville, Benedict XVI and the U.S. (3).
not surprising then that the September 17, in the historic Westminster Hall of the palace of the British Parliament (4), the pope said resolutely these words: "... Let me also express my esteem for Parliament in this place for centuries and has had a profound influence on the development of democratic governments between nations, especially in the Commonwealth and English-speaking world in general. Your legal traditions - common law - is the basis for legal systems in many parts of the world, and your particular vision of the respective rights and duties of the State and people, as well as the separation of powers, continue to inspire many around the world. " And later: "... Great Britain is set to a pluralistic democracy greatly values \u200b\u200bthe freedom of expression, freedom of political affiliation and respect for the role of law, with a deep sense of individual rights and duties, and equality of all citizens before the law. While in another language, the Social Doctrine of the Church has much in common with that perspective, its primary concern the protection of the unique dignity of every human person created in the image and likeness of God, and its emphasis on duties of the civil authority to promote the common good. "
course, the words of the Pontiff did not consecrate any specific institutional development, but can discern once again the subject of political liberalism, which is essential for the purposes of the Acton Institute. Catholics who continue to assert the incompatibility between all forms of liberalism and Catholicism, once made all terminological clarification possible, they accuse us of talking about liberalism in the abstract, that never existed, because not only fully identify liberalism with Rousseau continental tradition, but also English traditions identified with Anglicanism, colonialism, etc., when We have seen that all parliamentary institutions, which evolve towards concrete political liberalism in history and essentially different from before the Reformation and the Enlightenment. This was made clear again and again by Hayek, in his studies on the history of political liberalism, with its distinction between Anglo-Saxon and continental line on the division of powers and individual liberties.
Of course, this is for future generations. For Argentina, where many Catholics still identify with Catholicism, "Catholic nationalism", identified in turn with the first stage of the Peronist government, with Mussolini, Franco and anti-Semitism, this is useless, do not pretend to listen to us, year after year will continue to organize courses on "Liberalism is a sin", with significant support from some church groups, while groan against the rehabilitation of Rosmini's beatification of Newman and the entire Vatican. Pope, thank God, has other things in mind: the rescue of a common right which all cultures can be understood and where Catholics have citizenship status in the universal public reason. In this issue we will devote the second part of this article.
------------------------------ Notes:
1) Churchill, WAS, History of England and peoples English speaking; Peuser, Buenos Aires, 1958, Volume I, p. 23.
2) http://www.institutoacton.com.ar/articulos/gzanotti/artzanotti36.doc
3) http://www.institutoacton.com.ar/articulos/dserranoredonet/artserrano2.pdf
4) L ' Osservatore Romano, no. 39, 26.9.2010, p. 3, online at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2010/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20100917_societa-civile_sp.html
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