Church and Civil Society: ready for social partnership?

On Thursday, March 12^th, 2009, in Warsaw, the seminar on the relations between civil society and the church was held. The seminar, entitled: Church in civil society. Civil society in Church, was organized by two Polish think-tanks: the Institute of Public Affairs and the Institute of Social Analysis and Dialogue. The seminar was also to launch a book of the same title, edited by these two institutes.

Participants of the seminar represented various sectors. There were: third sector activists, priests, activists of church-related charities and religious organizations, political decision-makers (regulating the functioning of the nonprofit sector, religious organizations and churches in Poland),  thinkers from academia, as well as regular citizens interested in the topic. All of them said that it was the first debate of this kind in Poland, while there were millions about civil society itself.

During the seminar various dimensions of the relations between church and civil society were discussed, with the stress put on the problems and barriers in cooperation.

Some of the problems in mutual relations come from misunderstanding. For instance, many people associate church only with faith and prayer, overlooking the whole range of initiatives for the needy carried out by parishes and church-related organizations. Those who are aware of the fact that there are many church-related organizations acting for the common good find it unfair that church-related organizations have less bureaucratic and reporting requirements and more privileges. This is true, yet such church-related organizations are typically  not registered as nonprofits, and are only informal associations. And many activities of church-related associations or parishes are conducted by volunteers free of charge.

There is also, of course, a big gap between some church-related and some third sector organizations concerning values, norms, philosophy of life, which might prevent from accepting the whole third sector or whole church as such.

It is important, however, to see many common features between church-related and regular nonprofit organizations.

Both lay nonprofit organizations and church-related charity organizations have as an aim to help the needy and act for public benefit. Also, looking from a more theoretical perspective, the lay concept of civil society strongly overlap with the concept of society in catholic social teaching. Both think that social relations should be based on mutuality, responsibility for common good, and, above all, the principle of subsidiarity, the principle introduced by Pope Leo XIII, in the encyclical Rerum Novarum of 1891 and then popularized by later popes (including John Paul II). What is more, both church (parishes and religious organizations and initiatives) and lay nonprofit organizations strengthen bonds between people and social trust, building in this way social capital, the core element of civil society.

Furthermore, historically, religious orders, convents and the clergy contributed to the establishment and development of many organizations conducting charity work.

The participants of the seminar unanimously acknowledged that cooperation between church and nonprofit organizations is needed and should be based on mutual dialogue. Both lay and church-related organizations could also learn from each other.

Church-related organizations could learn professionalism from lay organizations, while church-related organizations could show lay organizations the values and motivations of service for the benefit of others, fidelity to a mission and care for the common good (as opposed to private interests of particular organizations, which is important in times of overall commercialization of the third sector), importance of social capital (members of organizations, parishes).

There is also a problem that research on the third sector or even civil society (in Poland, but frequently also in other countries) typically omit church or parish initiatives, which, although often not formalized, are frequently more important and more effective in certain fields than actions of many organizations formally established to act in these fields that have many funds for this purpose.

It would be then also important to conduct, in cooperation, reliable and complex research on civil society in Poland that would take into account the activities of church-related organizations and initiatives of parishes. It is a good hint for other countries as well.