Political catholicism is a political and cultural conception which promotes the ideas and social teaching of the Catholic Church (Catholic social teaching) in public life. (See also Christian democracy.)
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As a program and a movement, political catholicism was started by Prussian Catholics in the second half of the 19th century as a response to secular social concepts. The main reason was the attempt by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to limit the influence of Catholic Church, first in Prussia, and then in united Germany. That struggle is known in history as the Kulturkampf.
From Germany, political Catholic social movements spread in Austria-Hungary, especially in today's Austria, Ukraine, Slovenia and Croatia. Catholic Action was the name of many groups of lay Catholics who were attempting to encourage a Catholic influence on political society.
After the 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum ("Of new things") by Pope Leo XIII, political Catholic movements got a new impulse for development, and they spread the area of their involvement. With this encyclical, the Catholic Church expanded its interest in social, economical, political and cultural issues, and it called for a drastic conversion of Western society in the 19th century in the face of capitalist influences. Catholic believers, both lay and clergy alike, had a desire for active social and political engagement in order to deal with acute social problems according to Catholic Christian principles, as opposed to a purely secular approach.
In the 20th century, Catholic political movements became very strong in Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Ireland, France and Latin America. What these movements had in common was a defense of the acquired rights of the Catholic Church (attacked by anticlerical politicians) and a defense of Christian faith and moral values (threatened by increasing secularization). Members of opposing schools of thought called such attempts clericalism.
These Catholic movements developed various forms of Christian democratic ideology. Many criticized unrestrained capitalism and instead promoted concepts of Christian socialism. Freemasons were seen mainly as enemies and vehement opponents of political catholicism. Special situation happened in Mexico, where rigid atheists ruled in 1920s and completely oppressed Church and Catholics, what led to open Christian revolution of 1926 to 1929, known as Cristero War.
Some of the earliest important political parties were:
Most of these parties in Europe joined together in White International (1922).
In addition to political parties, Catholic/Christian trade unions were created, which fought for worker's rights: the earliest include:
After World War II, more unions were formed, including:
Until the Second Vatican Council, the Church did not tend to completely accept the model of modern democracy and its expansion into social and economic realms because it was wary of anticlerical socialistic tendencies. When Catholic social activists became too extreme in social conflicts, the Church hierarchy tried to stop their excesses; occasions of this included the Worker-priest movement in France in the 1940s and 1950s, and liberation theology in Latin America in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. But some movements were strongly supported by the Church, likewise Catholic Social Studies Movement in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s, from which National Civic Council has developed.
Catholic clergy and lay activists, prior to World War II, often tended to support far-right leaders such Francisco Franco and António de Oliveira Salazar, as well as the military regimes in Latin America. As a result, many workers involved in the labor movement joined social democratic and communist parties, which were sometimes secular and called for revolution against "old" values, including religion and the Church.
In the newest time, after Second World War, Christian engagement in politics became weaker and even "Demo-Christian" parties by name lost some of their Christianity. Stronger Christian involvement in Europe on the beginning of 21st century show some new and small parties, such are for example those joined in the European Christian Political Movement.