L’EGLISE CATHOLIQUE, PARTENAIRE POUR LE FONCTIONNEMENT RATIONNEL D’UN ETAT SOUVERAIN.

The Catholic Church and the State are two key institutions in Malagasy society. Both have the ambition to contribute to the well-being of society, despite their respective status. While the state is specific in the temporal domain, the Church priorities the spiritual. The two entities - Church and State - maintain a relationship tinged with mistrust or sometimes conflict, linked to their very different nature. The Church tends to impose its doctrine on the State, while the latter demands effective autonomy in order to be able to freely exercise its regal responsibilities. The problem of secularism thus arises. In order to resolve this paradoxical problem, the case of secularism with a Malagasy variation offers elements of a possible solution. The communiqués of the Catholic bishops give referential values, such as the common good, human rights, justice and social peace, and integral human development. They also insist on the promotion of Malagasy identity references such as nyfihavanana, nyfanahymaha-olona, etc. In doing so, the Catholic Episcopal authorities show their willingness to contribute to the promotion of a competent societal organization, lived in a "voluntary collaboration". But when necessary, the Church must act as the state's watchdog, even its ethical beacon. So much so that the state, as the holder of political power, has an interest in taking advantage of this opportunity to ensure its regalia function. This is a clear example of a sovereign state, in the sense of a political authority that embodies the supreme power of the people and is able to decide on its own. This work favors the diachronic and comparative institutional method. The expected result is to show that the effective presence of these two institutions - State and Church - ensures the proper functioning of a sovereign political institution. This is a way of promoting the well-being of society. To better understand the work, we refer to the chronological framework, from 1960 to 2010.

Key-words:secularism, the Church, the State, sovereignty

09/02/2023