Blog: Magna Carta – a big deal

Renowned economist Prof Philip Booth, who has been appointed Professor of Finance, Public Policy and Ethics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham from May 2015, has written this blog about the 800^th Anniversary of the Signing of the Magna Carta and its significance. A search for Magna Carta on the website of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales leads to an interesting outcome. Magna Carta is clearly regarded as important enough to merit being used as a phrase to describe other great pronouncements. For example, a few years ago, at the funeral Mass for Archbishop Ward of Cardiff, the celebrant (Archbishop Peter Smith) described the Beatitudes as our Magna Carta. Quite right – a very astute point. On the other hand, I can’t find any other mention of Magna Carta on the website. It would appear that the heritage of the document is clearly understood, but should we not be celebrating its anniversary? The 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta is an event that the Catholic Church in England and Wales should not allow to pass without note. Its development was an important period in the history of our nation, and one in which the Catholic Church – for there was no other Christian denomination in England at the time – was intimately involved. Furthermore, its principles are embedded deeply into some of the most important ideas of Catholic social teaching and they are widely understood and applied throughout the English speaking world. Given its origins, the celebration of the anniversary of Magna Carta should not be a monopoly of secular society. Indeed, surely this is an opportunity for the Church to make clear a point that Pope Benedict XVI made regularly: the principles of just government, which are often taken for granted, have an ethical foundation and are not human constructions. In fact, the Church’s relationship with Magna Carta was a complex one. Archbishop Stephen Langton was a key figure in drafting the first version of Magna Carta. Langton had been in exile after his appointment and the issue of the right of the Church to appoint bishops was a key issue in the debate about the relationship between the Church and the state. King John was also at loggerheads with Pope Innocent III. The issue of whether the state had the right to approve bishops or whether their appointment should be the sole prerogative of the Church was crucial in this debate – just as it is an important issue in China today. More generally, the whole subject of Church freedom was important to Stephen Langton and the first clause of Magna Carta stated that the freedom of the Church was inviolable: “First that we have granted to God, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired.” However, after complex political machinations, Stephen Langton was effectively exiled with the agreement of both King John and Pope Innocent III. As part of the peace brokered between the king and the pope, Magna Carta was repudiated by Pope Innocent in August 1215, though later versions were not regarded as objectionable. Furthermore, the principles of the document still resonate today and they have been picked up as key issues by the Church over the last generation. Today, we see in China many of the problems that we saw in England in 1215 arising from a tussle between state power and the freedom of the Church. It is true to say that there has been some recent extensions of religious freedom in China. However, the Chinese government has a particular antipathy towards organisations that have a corporate structure and which seek to be independent of the state. This includes civil society organisations and especially the Catholic Church. Such bodies simply do not fit into the Chinese government’s understanding of the role of the state: the state, community and society are seen as synonymous and the idea that the role of the state should be limited to providing the framework within which the common good can be promoted is simply not understood. For this reason, house churches and other evangelical groups without visible corporate structures are able to operate with a reasonable degree of freedom in many parts of China, but the Catholic Church is simply not free. There is a state-sponsored “church” which appoints “bishops” who are not generally approved by the Vatican, and there are underground Catholic Churches the adherents to which are often persecuted by the Chinese authorities. A small amount of accommodation and compromise can be possible as a short-term expedient in these circumstances, but the end goal must be very clear. Interestingly, that end goal is set out in the Vatican II document Dignitatis humanae which could be regarded as an heir to Magna Carta. Dignitatis humanaedemonstrates both the profound importance and the wide implications of promoting the principle of religious freedom. Today, many political conflicts – and indeed armed conflicts – have a lack of respect for religious freedom at their root. This is not just the case in China. It is a problem in our own time in our own country. Religious freedom goes much further than the freedom of the Church to appoint its own bishops. Religious freedom requires freedom of association, freedom of speech, the freedom for parents to educate their children according to their conscience, the freedom of nursing homes and adoption agencies to operate according to religious principles, and so on. These things are under threat in subtle ways in the UK. There was more to Magna Carta than Church freedom of course. As it developed, it upheld the fundamental rights of the person and the need for rule by and taxation with consent. Magna Carta also gave other institutions independence from the state. It is a fundamental principle of Catholic social teaching that the power of the state – as a human creation - should be limited. The state exists to uphold and not suppress the dignity of the human person, and to allow other independent organisations to flourish. These issues begin to be clarified in Magna Carta, though the focus in that document is often on the accountability of the king to the barons rather than to the people. This year is not only the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta; it is the 50^th anniversary of Dignitatis humanae. These important anniversaries deserve our attention. Much comment by Catholic figures on Catholic social teaching is simply political commentary. This double anniversary is a great opportunity for a strong and profound statement on the rights and dignity of the person and on religious freedom. These are issues which are so apposite at the current time. Such a statement would establish the moral distinction between our way of thinking and the way of thinking of those who wish to use religion as a tool of political oppression. It should also be made clear that those who wish to undermine religious freedom in the name of secularism are on the wrong side of history. Magna Carta and Dignitatis humanae can provide a light for those who live in the world’s most populous country and for those who live in many of the world’s conflict zones. Closer to home these documents address many of the contemporary problems that we face in Britain today. This article was first published in the Catholic Universe: http://www.thecatholicuniverse.com/