The papacy’s real power has rarely come from armies and o...

The papacy’s real power has rarely come from armies and often from moral authority, legitimacy, patience, and the ability to deny powerful rulers the blessing they want. Military and political power can coerce, but it cannot easily manufacture legitimacy. The author says rulers often want the Church’s symbolic approval, and the Church can be dangerous precisely when it withholds that approval in clear moral language. The Church’s strength has always depended on being willing to tell power that it is wrong. When it does that, it can outlast empires. When it compromises that role, it weakens itself. #ScholER #Topic of War carlynbeccia.medium.com/t..