"God reigns over the nations," regnavit Deus super gentes. (Ps. 47:8 [46:9]) It is with this understanding of God's universal reign over man and his political communities that the Church assesses the relationship between nations and its inherently global perspective.
One cannot understand the Church's social doctrine and social thought on international relations without appreciating the Church's understanding of the universal nature of Jesus and the universal mandate given to her by Christ. Indeed, the term "Catholic" comes to us from Greek katholikos, which means "universal." The Church is not limited to a particular nation, but is intended to embrace all peoples. She lives with the Kingdom of God in her breast.
As Francis Cardinal George recently put it: "Living in the kingdom of God means thinking beyond and outside the boxes created by citizenship in a nation, by cultural or racial exclusivity, and by individual choice. In the kingdom of God, divisive markers are not needed to establish identity."
That is not to say that nation, culture, or race is unimportant or cannot be a source of identity or pride, but these "markers" are decidedly demoted when placed with the universality of the Gospel and the universality of the Church. There is no Jew or Gentile in Christ. (Gal. 3:28) Salus populi lex suprema est. The salvation of souls is the supreme law and transcends all borders.
Indeed, one might even say that Jesus is become Israel. Hosea says, "when Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son." (Hosea 11:1) Jesus whom the Father loved fled to Egypt and remained there until Herod's death, so that "what was spoke by the Lord the prophet [Hosea] might be fulfilled, saying 'Out of Egypt did I call my son.'" (Matt. 2:14-15) Jesus is Israel. The Church, which is Christ's body, is the New Israel.
It is this universality, this Catholicism, which is central to the Church's understanding of sacred history, of man's history, and of her duties to all mankind and mankind's nations and political communities. It is a deep stream in her social teaching, and it is one that requires us to demote those particularities which might otherwise divide us if we placed too much importance on them: our nation, our culture, and our race. These particularities are ordered under the universality of the Church's message.
