Sure, but that was 800-1000 years ago. States didn’t exist then and Bishops hired mercenaries to defend their territories and political manoeuvres against feudal lords. The Pope still does, technically. The basic function of a State MUST succeed in is enforcing a monopoly on violence and does so through maintaining a standing army to def…
Sure, but that was 800-1000 years ago. States didn’t exist then and Bishops hired mercenaries to defend their territories and political manoeuvres against feudal lords. The Pope still does, technically. The basic function of a State MUST succeed in is enforcing a monopoly on violence and does so through maintaining a standing army to defend the population from external disputes and a police force to enforce the law and mitigate the damage from internal disputes.
Mexico, by this definition, has been various numbers teetering steps away from being a failed state since its bid for independence from Spain for example.
But if a semi-failed state can't enforce proper behavior in its populace I don't understand why the Church can't require a member of its hierarchy to live in a monastery somewhere without any contact with the world as a form of punishment for his or her sins.
She can most certainly do that independent of a state, but if he decides not to obey the Church, you don’t expect a bunch of nuns to bar him from leaving? And the Church can’t call the police and say “oi, Fr nastybuisness has left the premises against our instruction, can you drag him back please?” In a liberal
Democracy. In a semi-failed state it would depend on how much the local bishop is willing to bribe the police.
Usually friars rather than nuns. (Think McCarrick.) But I suppose how much the local bishop might be willing to give the police would depend on how much trouble the incarcerated had created.
Maybe. McCarrick, assuming his faculties were intact, he is within his rights as a citizen to accuse the church of violating his rights and could hobble out into the world with no one able to stop him or enforce the Church’s penalties, especially now he is laicised. If this were a less developed country, you’d still have major issues if your penalties are only enforceable by the capriciousness of bribery, assuming the police were not in cahoots with Fr nastybusiness in the first place.
Sure, but that was 800-1000 years ago. States didn’t exist then and Bishops hired mercenaries to defend their territories and political manoeuvres against feudal lords. The Pope still does, technically. The basic function of a State MUST succeed in is enforcing a monopoly on violence and does so through maintaining a standing army to defend the population from external disputes and a police force to enforce the law and mitigate the damage from internal disputes.
Mexico, by this definition, has been various numbers teetering steps away from being a failed state since its bid for independence from Spain for example.
But if a semi-failed state can't enforce proper behavior in its populace I don't understand why the Church can't require a member of its hierarchy to live in a monastery somewhere without any contact with the world as a form of punishment for his or her sins.
She can most certainly do that independent of a state, but if he decides not to obey the Church, you don’t expect a bunch of nuns to bar him from leaving? And the Church can’t call the police and say “oi, Fr nastybuisness has left the premises against our instruction, can you drag him back please?” In a liberal
Democracy. In a semi-failed state it would depend on how much the local bishop is willing to bribe the police.
Usually friars rather than nuns. (Think McCarrick.) But I suppose how much the local bishop might be willing to give the police would depend on how much trouble the incarcerated had created.
Maybe. McCarrick, assuming his faculties were intact, he is within his rights as a citizen to accuse the church of violating his rights and could hobble out into the world with no one able to stop him or enforce the Church’s penalties, especially now he is laicised. If this were a less developed country, you’d still have major issues if your penalties are only enforceable by the capriciousness of bribery, assuming the police were not in cahoots with Fr nastybusiness in the first place.