On Easter Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI addressed his audience, “May the international community, which reaffirms Israel’s just right to exist in peace, assist the Palestinian people to overcome the precarious conditions in which they live and to build their future, moving toward the constitution of a state which is truly their own.”

He also addressed the nuclear ambitions of Iran, prayed for the people of Darfur and stated that the democratic institutions of Latin America need to be “consolidated in a spirit of harmony.”

Urbi et Orbi-the formal address given by the pontiff every year at Easter and Christmas-means literally “to the City and to the World.”

To Catholics who heard or read the Urbi et Orbi this Easter, it means that their religion takes a stand on international politics.

Yikes!

To use either of those words in casual conversation would be bad etiquette-and we use both. Church and politics-to some, that is babble. It is bedlam. Boisterous caterwauling. Cacophony. It’s disconcerting.

Don’t bring your religion into politics, you’re told. Someone is going to be offended.

But to do anything less would be in bad faith.

Religious practice and politics go hand in hand. You see: Our hallowed words and ideals would be hollow if they never became action.

In the last couple of weeks, Saint Louis University students have addressed in campus debate-as well as in these pages-the manner in which the politics of socialism align with the tenets of Christianity. They have not addressed these issues as “my party is better than your party,” but rather have discussed the ways in which we can use political theories as tools to aid us in living our ideals.

They have had every right to do so. In fact, they have been right to do so.

The debate about socialism on SLU’s campus is more than a debate about college club politics; it is a debate about the way in which religious or humanistic or idealistic belief systems affect our political decisions. It is a conversation on the why behind the what-what motivates our political actions? And what politics enable our ideals to become action?

We encourage the debate about socialism to continue. And we ask the same of our other political organizations at SLU.

College Republicans and College Democrats-where have you been during these debates? How do your political principles accommodate our Jesuit mission?