State shouldn’t control religion

I REFER to the letter on yesterday’s The National, page 28, “Declare PNG a Christian country”, where the writer states he is “not happy with the statement by the Catholic bishops concerning the consultation on constitutionally making Papua New Guinea a Christian country”.
He then gives his reasons in a very articulate and respectable manner.
The Catholic church remains open to further debate and contributions.
We wish to have more consultation and that the leadership of the different Christian denomination are directly engaged by the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission.
The Catholic church agrees with the current Constitution, where we “pledge ourselves to guard and pass on to those who come after us our noble traditions and the Christian principles that are ours now.”
These are two pillars that must be safeguarded.
And this already makes PNG substantially a Christian country, with the fact that almost the totality of the population adheres to one of the old or new Christian denominations.
What the Constitution fails to do, and the founding fathers did not want to do, was to make PNG a Christian state.
But the reasoning of those who now propose constitutional changes seem to lean in that direction, despite the confusion and approximation in language.
However, that would be a huge constitutional shift.
It means that Christianity would be the religion of the State, with others being, at best, tolerated; and there would be a State church, either chosen among one of the existing Christian denominations, perhaps with a majority parliamentary vote, or by absurd created new by the government of the day.
No Christian denomination in PNG has the numbers to monopolise the scene.
Promoting a confessional state is not the current international trend.
Countries that, due to historical reasons, had one of the Christian denominations as a state church in the past, have now adopted a more accommodating legislation.
Islamic countries are also going in the same direction, though more slowly and with significant exceptions.
Religion is not totally a private issue as some people tend to say.
It has huge social implications.
In fact, the churches are social entities and play a significant role in the public arena.
It is good, however, that the State does not own them and they do not own the State.
The State rightly works with the force of the law, faith convinces through the consistency and credibility of words and actions by the believers.
Two different realms.
Two different purposes.
Our closest neighbour, Indonesia, is the biggest Muslim country in the world, but is not an Islamic state.

Rev.Fr Giorgio Licini,
Catholic Bishops Conference