| Summary: | The Church’s Magisterium has not commented on nationalism in a systematic and comprehensive way yet. The article brings the nodal points on this subject and describes Pope’s reactionsto the risks of extreme nationalism aberration that manifest themselves, both in attitudes and ideologies, and lead to conflicts and wars. Actually, the papal pronouncements of Pope BenedictXV and senior Benedict XVI have been put into analysis. The matrix of the analysis is particularly the knowledge of Catholic social teaching, social philosophy and political science. Social teaching of the Church, drawing arguments from natural law and Revelation, gives the prominence in the human community to nations and national values. At the same time, however, it warns against treating them as the absolute values. This basic error of extreme nationalism substantially disturbs human equality and undermines the dignity of a man, sacrificing him brutally on the altar of national interests. Extreme nationalism perceived as a total ideology that tends to become almost a religion or inhuman socio-political system is strongly condemned in the social teaching of the Church.
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