XIV. On the Obligations As Regards Civil Authority

182. Since domestic society is an imperfect society, and does not furnish sufficiency for the necessities of human life, while nature does not make the imperfect except that it may tend to the perfect, it is clear that, by the very connate sociability of human nature, civil society is born from the natural development of families. Consequently, as the family is an immediately natural society, so also the commonwealth obtains its origin immediately from nature itself; and consequently political principate also, considered absolutely and according to itself, is immediately from God, as from the author of nature. Indeed, by nature itself man is ordained both to imperfect society, or the family, and to perfect society, or the commonwealth, which consequently is something flowing from human nature itself. Suarez, de Legib. 3, c. 1, n. 3. But no human society can be or be conceived without authority ruling and governing it. Suarez, de Legib. l. 3, c. 2, n. 4. Whence the Apostle, Rom. 13:1: "Let every soul be subject to higher powers; for there is no power except from God; but those which are, are ordained by God." Whence, there is no power except from God. Whoever have the right of commanding do not receive it from elsewhere... Whatever power there is anywhere, nature itself testifies that it proceeds from God. Leo XIII, encyclical Immortale Dei.

183. "But it is of interest to attend in this place that those who are to preside over the commonwealth can in certain cases be chosen by the will and judgment of the multitude, with Catholic doctrine neither opposing nor resisting. By which choice indeed the prince is designated; the rights of principate are not conferred; nor is command mandated, but it is established by whom it is to be carried." Leo XIII, encyclical Diuturnum illud teterrimumque bellum.

184. Civil society, therefore, is a perfect society of the natural order, which supplies perfect sufficiency of life. Leo XIII, encyclical Immortale Dei; St. Thomas, in 1 Polit., lect. 1. Perfect sufficiency, by supplying the defect of the individual person and of domestic society as regards the perfect cultivation of human life. "For every communication of men is ordered to something necessary for life." St. Thomas, in l. c. Therefore that will be the perfect commonwealth in which are found all things necessary for developing human life; this happens by observance of public order, for the common good of the associates, namely that they live in peace and justice with sufficiency of goods which look to the conservation and convenience of bodily life, and with that probity of morals which is necessary for this external peace and happiness of the commonwealth and the suitable conservation of human nature. Suarez, de Leg., l. 3, c. 11, n. 6. For indeed "a city is not blessed from one source and a man from another, since a city is nothing other than a concordant multitude of men." St. Augustine, Epist. 155. Therefore, just as God is the simply ultimate end of the whole of human life, so God is also the ultimate end of civil society; and consequently the operation of the whole commonwealth ought finally to tend to that end, by ordering the life of men through laws to virtues. St. Thomas, l. c. and 1.2, q. 96, a. 3; Suarez, de Leg., l. 3, c. 12.

185. Now indeed from the very nature of civil society sketched out, it is easily deduced what in it is the obligation of the prince or public power, and of subjects.

Princes are bound to have diligent care of the common good. Consequently they are bound to avert evils, as far as can be done, from society, evils which arise from wars with foreigners and from internal seditions by the work of sects of Freemasons, socialists, and others of that kind.

"Command must be carried for the utility of citizens, because those who are over the rest are over them for this one cause, that they may protect the utility of the commonwealth. Nor must it in any way be committed that civil authority serve for the advantage of one or of a few, since it has been constituted for the common good of all." Leo XIII, encyclical Immortale Dei; encyclical Diuturnum.

Therefore the most grave obligation of princes is that they rightly perform their own office. And the obligation is the graver, the more sublime their dignity is. "Let princes take examples from God, best and greatest, whence authority is theirs; and proposing to themselves his image in administering the commonwealth, let them be over the people with equity and faith, and to that severity which is necessary let them apply paternal charity." Leo XIII, encyclical Diuturnum.

186. Therefore princes are bound to make laws that are just and useful to the common good, to administer justice without respect of persons, and to urge the execution of public decrees and sentences, according to the threefold office of political power, legislative, judicial, executive or coercive; and consequently they are bound to inflict due punishments on malefactors, especially as regards those crimes which directly tend to common damage. But since princes cannot exercise by themselves the three listed offices of authority, they ought to entrust them to distinct and fit magistrates, removing the unworthy and inept from public offices of this kind.

187. Certainly those laws are not just which decline from natural, divine, or human right. The following propositions have been condemned:

"56. The laws of morals have no need of divine sanction, and there is by no means need that human laws be conformed to the natural law, or receive the force of obliging from God." Syllabus.

"57. The science of philosophical matters and morals, and likewise civil laws, can and ought to decline from divine and ecclesiastical authority." Syllabus.

"The will of the people, manifested by what they call public opinion or in another way, constitutes the supreme law, loosed from all divine and human right; and in the political order completed facts, by the very fact that they are completed, have the force of right." Pius IX, encyclical Quanta cura.

188. On the contrary, from the Angelic Doctor, 1.2, q. 96, a. 4, laws will be just which are ordered to the common good, which do not exceed the power of him who bears them, which impose burdens on subjects according to equality of proportion in order to the common good. It is also necessary that laws be imposed on men according to their condition. "Human law is placed upon the multitude of men, in which there is a greater part of men not perfect in virtue. And therefore by human law not all vices are prohibited, from which the virtuous abstain, but only the graver ones, from which it is possible for the greater part of the multitude to abstain, and especially those which are to the harm of others, without the prohibition of which human society could not be conserved; thus by human law homicides, thefts, and things of this kind are prohibited." St. Thomas, 1.2, q. 96, a. 2.

189. But princes ought especially to have care of religion, and consequently to preserve the rights of the Church. For the common good of society is most greatly promoted, the public order of society is preserved undisturbed, and laws are observed holily, if the offices of religion are observed inviolate. Free-thinkers are in error, and in the greatest error; consequently they are opposed to the true good and progress of society. The good and progress of society cannot be in error. Therefore, by right and merit, the following three propositions were proscribed by Pius IX in the encyclical Quanta cura:

"The best arrangement of public society and civil progress altogether requires that human society be constituted and governed with no respect had to religion, as if it did not exist, or at least with no distinction made between true and false religions."

"The best condition of society is that in which the duty of coercing with established penalties violators of the Catholic religion is not recognized by the Government, except insofar as public peace demands."

"Liberty of conscience and of worship is the proper right of each man, which ought to be proclaimed and asserted by law in every rightly constituted society; and the right belongs to citizens to every kind of liberty, to be confined by no ecclesiastical or civil authority, by which they may be able openly and publicly to manifest their own concepts, whatever they may be, whether by voice, by print, or by another manner."

Aptly Leo XIII, encyclical Immortale Dei: "Nature and reason, which command individuals to worship God holily and religiously, because we are in his power and because, having proceeded from him, we ought to return to the same, bind the civil community by the same law. For men joined in common society are no less in the power of God than individuals, nor does society owe less grace to God than individuals do; by him as author it came together, by his nod it is conserved, by his benefit it received the innumerable abundance of goods with which it abounds. Therefore, just as it is lawful for no one to neglect his duties toward God, and the greatest duty is to embrace in mind and morals religion, not what each one may have preferred, but what God has commanded, and what by certain and by no means doubtful indications it has been established is the one true religion out of all; in the same way commonwealths cannot, without crime, bear themselves as if God did not exist at all, or cast aside care of religion as alien and in no way profitable, or take to themselves indifferently out of the many kinds whatever pleases them. Altogether they ought to use, in worshiping the Divinity, that custom and manner by which God himself has shown that he wills himself to be worshiped. Therefore the name of God ought to be holy among princes; and among their chief duties must be placed to embrace religion with favor, to protect it with benevolence, to shield it by the authority and nod of the laws, and to establish or decree nothing which is contrary to its safety. They owe this also to the citizens over whom they preside. For all we men have been born and received unto a certain supreme and ultimate good, to which all plans are to be referred, placed in the heavens, beyond this fragility and brevity of life. But since the fully completed and perfect happiness of men depends on this, therefore it is of such interest to each individual to attain that end which has been mentioned, that nothing can be of greater interest. Therefore civil society, born for the common utility, in guarding the prosperity of the commonwealth, must so consult citizens that in obtaining and attaining that supreme and unchangeable good which they spontaneously seek, it not only never bring any inconvenience, but bring all opportunities whatsoever that it can. The chief of these is that work be given to religion to be preserved holily and inviolate, whose offices join man to God." Leo XIII, encyclical Immortale Dei.

Certainly civil society has God as parent and author. Therefore it is necessary that it revere and worship his power and dominion. Wherefore society cannot be atheistic, nor consequently be affected in an equal way toward various religions, toward the true and the false; it cannot lavish the same rights promiscuously on each.

190. Besides, the prince is bound effectively to protect the rights of citizens and especially of property; otherwise the peace of society is disturbed by dissensions. He is bound to promote agriculture, industries, arts, and commerce of various things, so that citizens not only not lack, but even abound in things necessary for life. And, since the poor are never lacking, he is bound to excite and foster works of public charity and beneficence. Likewise he is bound to advance the sciences, so that perfect material and moral sufficiency of life may truly be found in civil society.

Therefore socialism, which contends that things and advantages are to be divided equally among citizens, "and its proposal concerning reducing possessions into common ownership must be altogether repudiated, because it harms those very persons who are to be helped, is repugnant to the natural rights of individuals, and disturbs the offices of the commonwealth and common tranquillity. Therefore, when relief of the people is sought, this ought to remain and be held first as a kind of foundation, that private possessions are to be preserved inviolate." Leo XIII, encyclical de Conditione opificum.

191. The explored smallness of his powers impels and exhorts man to wish to join to himself another's help. By this natural propensity man is led to public civil society, and to entering other private societies with citizens; for private society looks only to the utility of those associated. The prince ought to protect and assist all these societies, if they are not contrary to the good of civil society; much more if they are very useful to it, as are all religious associations or religious Congregations. But these, since by common rule and manner of living they profess the perfection of the evangelical counsels, and consequently depend on the authority of the Church, if they are prohibited and expelled by civil society, not only the rights of nature, but also the rights of the Catholic Church are violated. Therefore with right and merit proposition 85 was condemned in the Syllabus:

"The laws are to be abrogated which pertain to protecting the state of religious families and their rights and offices; indeed the civil government can furnish aid to all those who wish to defect from an undertaken institute of religious life and to break solemn vows; and likewise it can utterly extinguish the same religious families, as well as collegiate churches and simple benefices, even of right of patronage, and subject and vindicate their goods and revenues to the administration and judgment of the civil power."

But if associations of this kind pursue anything from their own institute which openly disagrees with probity, justice, and the safety of the commonwealth, they must be opposed by fitting laws. "For these causes the public power will by right impede those associations from coming together; by right it will also dissolve them when they have come together." Leo XIII, encyclical letter de Conditione opificum.

192. "Then those most salutary and equally most true things which look to civil society and the interchange of rights and duties between sacred and political power. For just as there are two greatest societies on earth, the one civil, whose proximate end is to obtain for the human race a temporal and worldly good, the other religious, whose office it is to lead men to that true happiness for which we were made, heavenly and eternal, so there is a twofold power. Both obey the eternal and natural law, and in those things which are contained by the order and command of either one, each consults for itself. But whenever something of that kind must be constituted concerning which it is right that each power constitute something, although by diverse causes and in a diverse way, nevertheless each must constitute something, a concord of each is necessary and agreeable to public utility; if this is removed, there will altogether follow a certain doubtful and changeable condition, with which the tranquillity neither of the Church nor of the commonwealth can consist. Therefore when something has been constituted by agreements entered, then surely what belongs to justice, the same belongs to the public matter, that concord remain intact; because just as mutual offices are furnished by one to the other, so a certain fruit of utility is received and rendered on both sides." Leo XIII, encyclical epistle to the Bishops of Gaul, Nobilissima Gallorum gens, Feb. 8, 1884.

193. Now indeed subjects are bound also to exhibit love, reverence, and obedience to secular superiors. For in the civil order they are true superiors, bearing the place of God himself toward us in the temporal order. This is confirmed from Sacred Scripture, Rom. 13:1 seqq.; 1 Pet. 2:13, 17. For this reason the Catechism of the Council of Trent compares and joins an obligation of this kind with that by which we are bound toward paternal and ecclesiastical authority. For, p. 3, on the fourth Commandment, sect. 15, after it taught that parents and ecclesiastical superiors must be honored with due honor, it adds: "The same must be said of Kings, Princes, Magistrates, and the rest to whose power we are subject. For if we give any cult to them, it is referred to God; for the excellent grade of dignity has the veneration of men, because it is after the likeness of divine power; in which also we venerate the providence of God, who has attributed to them the management of public office, and uses them as ministers of his power." Whence it is clear that reverence must be exhibited not only to Princes, but also to their officials according to their office and dignity. - Encyclical letter of Leo XIII Quella lunga, June 29, 1881; St. Thomas, 2.2, q. 104, a. 5, 6; Quodl. 8, a. 7; Quodl. 10, a. 12.

Therefore it is not fitting to speak rashly of those who perform a public office, nor malignly to carp at their deeds; although it is lawful to scrutinize them and to speak and write publicly about them, insofar as the laws permit this, so that they may be judged rightly and the public utility may be provided for. Therefore they sin against charity and justice who announce in public sheets, or publish in conversations and discussions, the hidden crimes of some persons, which do not harm others, in order that they may drive them from some office. They injure due observance who inflict insults on them, whether by words or by writings, and who deny to them the due signs of honor. - Kenrick, tr. 8, n. 164, 165.

194. "To despise legitimate power," says Leo XIII, "in whatever person it has been established, is no more lawful than to resist the divine will; and if any resist this, they rush into voluntary destruction. He who resists the power resists the ordinance of God; but those who resist acquire damnation for themselves." Encyclical Immortale Dei.

"The order of justice requires that inferiors obey their superiors. For otherwise the state of human things could not be conserved." St. Thomas, 2.2, q. 104, a. 6.

"Just as the actions of natural things proceed from natural powers, so also human operations proceed from the human will. But it was necessary in natural things that higher things move lower things to their actions by the excellence of natural virtue conferred by God. Whence also in human things it is necessary that superiors move inferiors by their will from the force of authority divinely ordained. But to move through reason and will is to command. And therefore, just as from the natural order itself divinely instituted lower things in natural things necessarily are subject to the motion of higher things, so also in human things by the order of natural and divine right inferiors are bound to obey their superiors." St. Thomas, 2.2, q. 104, a. 1.