Question Four: On the Offices of Rulers and Subjects

846. Offices of rulers and subjects in general. - By rulers here are understood not only those who in society hold supreme power, as emperors, kings, dukes, presidents of a republic, but all those upon whom the governance of the republic rests, as ministers, governors, magistrates, judges, even deputies who in modern societies partly enjoy legislative power. But subjects are those who are subjected to their governance. To all these there ought to be common love of country and of the community with its members; to rulers especially there belongs special love, governance, providence, and protection of subjects; but these owe to rulers fidelity, reverence, obedience, and the support of taxes.

These things hold not only concerning civil superiors, but also concerning ecclesiastical superiors, to whom likewise the faithful owe fidelity, reverence, obedience in spiritual matters, and support, as was said in n. 708; but ecclesiastical superiors have special obligations for governing the faithful in order to eternal life, but concerning this it is customary to speak where particular states are treated, or in canon law.

847. Special offices of superiors and rulers. - Legitimate civil rulers and superiors, in the governance of subjects, bear the place of God, whose power they participate in (Prov. VIII, 15; Rom. XIII, 1 sq.); whence they ought to exercise it conformably to natural and divine law. By force of their office, under grave obligation they are bound primarily to intend and procure the temporal common good, in subordination to the good of eternal life, as legal justice prescribes (n. 265); hence they ought:

1. To know in what the material and spiritual common good consists, and diligently to investigate by what means it can be promoted, all circumstances of persons, things, and times being considered.

2. According to their powers, to avert temporal evils, such as wars, seditions, famines, contagious diseases, want, etc.

3. To protect justice: both commutative, by carefully protecting the rights of all citizens and legitimate associations and of society itself; and distributive, in the distribution of offices and burdens, every acceptance of persons being excluded (n. 616 sq.); and vindicative with respect to evildoers in inflicting punishments.

4. To protect and promote honesty of morals and religion, because the exercise of virtue pertains principally to temporal happiness. But since the Catholic religion is the only true one, they cannot impede it; indeed per se they ought positively to protect it.

5. To procure sufficient abundance of temporal goods and economic prosperity, which is required instrumentally for common happiness.

848. Special offices of subjects. - Subjects owe to legitimate superiors and rulers:

1. Fidelity, by which they acknowledge them as legitimate superiors and will to adhere and be subject to them.

They can do nothing unjust to withdraw themselves from the jurisdiction of superiors, nor unjustly contrive anything for thrusting a legitimate ruler down from power, nor excite rebellion or sedition against him, nor a fortiori kill him. Hence proposition 63 of the Syllabus was condemned: "It is licit to refuse obedience to legitimate rulers, indeed even to rebel."

2. Internal and external reverence, insofar as they participate in the authority and excellence of God, to whom honor is to be rendered (Rom. XIII, 7).

Subjects sin against due reverence who bring contumely upon the person or image of the ruler, who mock him by writings, words, pictures, who deny without just cause the signs of reverence due and exhibited by all, or exhibit contempt to him.

3. Obedience in all licit things which regard their governance (I Pet. II, 13 sq.), whether they command by laws, or by judicial sentences, or by administrative decrees, unless the precepts are certainly unjust.

In practice, the obedience due can be diverse. It must be considered which laws are merely penal, which preceptive; when an unjust law cannot be observed, and when it can, or even must, be observed to avoid a greater evil. Here those things which we said concerning civil law (I, n. 286-287) come to be applied.

4. The support of taxes, under which name military service can also come; these things were already declared above (n. 624 sq.).