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Spiritualità e politica. Una sfida per i cattolici europei di fronte alla globalizzazione

Summary: Starting from a sociological point of view, this paper calls attention to some new aspects of the old question concerning the relationship between Christian spirituality and politics. The Catholic comprehension of this crucial relationship ought to deal with the transformations which affected the political system during the Twentieth Century. It will focus on two open questions: Has the Catholic social teaching on politics registered the end of the “State” (obviously, in the precise “old European” meaning of the term)? - Should or not this thought be more interested in its “Atlantic” component, as happened during the last Council with “Dignitatis Humanae”? The discernment of and the participation in the building of the European Union (according to the model of a “superpower” or of a “super State”?), particularly in the assessment of its Constitutional Treaty, is the term ad quem of our reflection. Catholics should have paid attention not only to the obviously important chapter concerning the UE/Churches relationships, but to the entire question of the idea of relationships between politics and the rest of society as well.