Abstract

Jörgen Vijgen:
Is a Catholic State Theoretically still Possible and Desirable in the Light of the Second Vatican Council?
(FKTh 2016-4, p. 291–305)

As the title of this article makes clear, we intend to answer two questions namely. Whether a Catholic State is still a theoretical possibility and if so, whether one should strive to realize such a Catholic State. Although these questions have been the object of intense and often emotional debates, it is customary in the postconciliar Church to answer these questions negatively in light of Dignitatis Humanae and other documents of the Second Vatican Council. My aim in this article is to argue for a positive answer to both questions precisely on the basis of the documents of Vatican II: not only does Vatican II leave the possibility of a Catholic State open, but it also supports the desirability of a Catholic State. In order to have an objective debate, I have chosen the medieval form of debate, i.e. the quaestio, reporting the main objections pro and contra and responding to them on the basis of the response in the corpus of the question.