From the Executive Director In a departure from our typical practice of Emily offering an editorial note, I wanted to use “Participatory the opportunity to share notes of gratitude democracy is as I complete my tenure at IPJC. Over the the only real last six years we have built a community of democracy.” –Ella Baker leaders and movement of people that can sustainably work to create systemic change. The center of this work has been investing in the leadership of people across the community to develop greater agency to share each of our unique stories and voices and collaboratively enact a vision of the world grounded in justice, mercy, and love. The opportunity to lead this shared mission has been a privilege and gift. During my time here I have witnessed what it means to accompany people in co-building a world we all desperately need to live a fully dignified life. I am especially grateful for the trust of the community, particularly as a man leading an organization that since its inception has been centered around women’s leadership. It has been humbling to learn from so many women on our staff, board, Youth Action Team program, and many other places. As the father of two young girls, I am reassured by the strength, commitment, and leadership of this community both in offering an example to my daughters but also creating a world and church in which their leadership and value will be respected and activated. I have no doubt that the future of this organization will be one marked by real and meaningful change catalyzed by a movement of people that belong to one another. As the organization has grown and changed it has become clearer to me that if we are to truly live into the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, democracy must become and embedded in that practice and the structure of the organization and protected in larger society. Each of the articles in this issue highlights the role that democracy plays in shaping a society that promotes participation and manufactures real unity oriented towards the common good. As people of faith, creating the conditions for all people to have a place at the table is essential for building the systems that impact each of us daily. The civil rights activist and leader Ella Baker put it succinctly: “Participatory democracy is the only real democracy.” We hope these articles can agitate and activate your imagination as we all consider what is each of ours to do. Peace, Will Rutt, Executive Director P.S. Thank you to all of the faithful AMOS readers, to our editorial board, and especially to Emily Sanna, our editor. This resource continues to be a foundational tool for highlighting Catholic social teaching in praxis. It’s been an honor and joy to serve on the editorial board during my time here. 2
FA L L 2 0 2 6 • N O. 1 5 1
The People Are BY STEVEN P. MILLIES
“ Since all are free by nature, all government, whether by written law or a prince, is based solely on the agreement and consent of the subject.” — Nicholas of Cusa, The Catholic Concordance (1433)
D
emocracy has not had a happy experience in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1433, a bright young churchman named Nicholas of Cusa suggested that government inside and outside the church derived from the consent of the governed. His Catholic Concordance, which expressed his revolutionary idea, was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by Pope Sixtus V in 1590, and it never has been formally rehabilitated (though Nicholas himself did go on to become a cardinal). As centuries went by, the church persisted in its skepticism about democracy through the revolutionary decades that brought the 1700s to the 1800s, right down until World War II. Pope Leo XIII opened a crack in this determined ecclesial opposition with his 1899 encyclical, Libertas. But it was in a 1944 radio address where—caught between Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, and Stalin’s Soviet Union—Pope Pius XII finally allowed that democracy could be a “healthy and well balanced” form of government that served the common good of all the people. Still, a radio address is not an official teaching. Most people assume that when the Second Vatican Council said, “Praise is due to those national procedures which allow the largest possible number of citizens to participate in public affairs with genuine freedom,” the Catholic Church had finally accepted democracy. But that still was not quite the case. As late as 1991, Pope John Paul II worried about what the people might choose by democratic means when he implied a distinction between democracy and “authentic democracy,” the latter being a democracy that was guided by the moral law so that—for example—the people would not vote for legalized access to abortion. The “authentic” democracy was one that agreed with the church about moral questions. When the 21st century dawned, officially, the church could not allow that democracy itself was a social or political good for fear of what the people might choose. All of that is why Pope Francis’ simple statement in a 2016 airborne press conference—“The people are sovereign”—was a