It is not true that there is opposition between being a good Catholic and serving civil society faithfully. In
the same way there is no reason why the Church and the State clash when they proceed with the lawful exercise of their respective authorities, in fulfillment of the mission God has entrusted to them.
Those who affirm the contrary are liars, yes, liars! They are the same people who honor a false liberty, and ask us Catholics “to do them the favor” of going back to the catacombs.
Your task as a Christian citizen is to help see Christ’s love and freedom preside over all aspects of modern life: culture and the economy, work and rest, family life and social relations.
Many things, whether they be material, technical, economic, social, political or cultural, when left to themselves, or left in the hands of those who lack the light of the faith, become formidable obstacles to the supernatural life. They form a sort of closed shop which is hostile to the Church.
You, as a Christian and, perhaps, as a research worker, writer, scientist, politician or laborer, have the duty to sanctify those things. Remember that the whole universe–as the Apostle says–is groaning as in the pangs of labor, awaiting the liberation of the children of God.
Love your own country: it is a Christian virtue to be patriotic. But if patriotism becomes nationalism, which leads you to look at other people, at other countries, with indifference, with scorn, without Christian charity and justice, then it is a sin.
It is not patriotism to justify crimes or to deny the rights of other peoples.
St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, nos. 301, 302, 311, 315, 316
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