Catholics need to wake up when it comes to politics, and stop leaving “God in the pew,” a Vatican aide said Monday, according to Zenit.org.

In an address at a conference in Assisi, Italy, organized by Retinopera, a network of Italian organizations that promote the Church’s social teachings, Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, called on Catholic laity to get involved in politics.

Crepaldi said Benedict xvi’s call in Sardinia in early September for “the birth of a new generation of Christians involved in society and politics” was addressed to the Christian communities “who, as far as the formation [of] new generations involved in society and politics is concerned, seem to be falling asleep.”

A Catholic rebirth, he said, would not likely succeed “without more conscious and integrated use of the Church’s social teaching.” Individual resistance would not be enough to defeat future challenges, he said.

Crepaldi pointed to the fact that Benedict xvi is confronting the process of secularization. “We must confidently join them as real protagonists, and not see ourselves as tired bit players in a script recited by others,” he said.

“God cannot be left in the pew,” Crepaldi said, and religion and faith “must not be excluded from public life or used only for limited pragmatic goals.”

Referring to the political and social involvement of Catholics, Crepaldi stated: “Sometimes they censor themselves preventatively when they must enter and work in the public arena ….”

Such calls by the Vatican for Catholics to get more involved in politics are becoming more common as the Roman Catholic Church’s evangelizing effort intensifies. Referring to Benedict’s address in Sardinia last month, theTrumpet.com columnist Ron Fraser wrote:

Rome has always been clever at carrying out its strategy of embedding Catholic laity in labor movements, government bureaucracy, the secret services and the legal profession. Now the pope is calling for those Catholics who hold positions of influence within society to heed the clarion call from Rome to saddle up for a new global crusade! …What we are witnessing … in Europe is simply the old cycle of history repeating itself, just one more time. The final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire is increasingly, and inevitably, asserting itself in European and global politics.

Watch for the Vatican to extend its political clout even further in Italy and throughout the rest of Europe. For more information on the pope’s role in politics, read our May Trumpet article “The Kingbreaker.”