From the bulletin of November 1, 2020
With the election already upon us, it is a good time to look at Pope Leo XIII’s encyclicals on the government. Pope Leo XIII lived during a time of great social change (the late 1800s) and was very socially conscious. While he was pope, he issued several letters dealing with the specific conditions of Catholics in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Peru, and others. He also wrote a few letters addressing the question of Church-State relations in a general way. A particularly helpful encyclical is Immortale Dei: On the Christian Constitution of States, published in 1885.
There are two layers when we talk about reality: The natural and the supernatural. These two often interact, but each has their own specific focus. When in conflict over something, priority should be given to the supernatural. For example, it is part of the natural order that human beings practice self-preservation, get married, and have children. But, when Jesus calls upon specific individuals, it is part of the supernatural order that a person chooses to let themselves be killed (martyrdom) or chooses not to get married in order to serve the Kingdom of God (holy celibacy). When it comes to the government, Leo XIII sees it as part of the natural order, but criticizes those who want to pretend there is no supernatural order.
Another way to put this is that all truth comes from God, but some of it we can figure out on our own and some of it we can only know if God tells us (Revelation). A lot of morality is actually something we can figure out using our minds. We call this morality “Natural Law.” When Catholics say “murder is wrong,” it’s not a religious idea, but a natural idea. When we say “you should go to Mass on Sundays,” that is something God revealed to us. A person can’t just know that on their own. So, when we interact with the government, we can make our arguments based on the natural law, meaning we’re not “shoving our religion down people’s throats.” At the same time, because of Original Sin, human beings are often really bad at figuring out and recognizing what is right and wrong if they rely on just their own ability to think. So, faith often helps us be more reasonable. For this reason, the Church is actually quite beneficial to society because we can remind it of things they easily forget or get wrong.
This also does not mean that the government can simply ignore the existence of God. Part of Natural Law is that human beings can figure out that there is a God even without faith. They may not know much about who God is, but they can know that he exists. On both the natural and supernatural levels, human beings are supposed to respect God. So, government policies which treat human beings as if there is no God are bound to fail because they are ignoring a major part of what makes a human being human.
Pope Leo explains that government is a natural part of human existence. He writes “Man’s natural instinct moves him to live in civil society.” God designed us to have government. Since government authority is part of God’s design, Catholics should obey their civil leaders as much as a possible. He does not say that any one form of government is the right form, so long as that form acknowledges itself to be under the authority of God, who is the source of all law, order, and goodness. This means that communism is a problem in part because it denies the existence of God. But this can also apply to democracies and republics if they act like there is no God. The existence of God is something we can know by reason. Human beings have a natural instinct to practice some form of religion; they instinctively worship something, even when they don’t necessarily realize that’s what they’re doing. For this reason, the pope also teaches that “one of [the] chief duties” of leaders is “to favor religion, to protect it, to shield it under the credit and sanction of the laws, and neither to organize nor enact any measures that may compromise its safety.” So, when a government crosses the line of trying to interfere with service to God, the government steps outside its authority and should be disobeyed. And remember that protecting religion or even favoring it (like with tax-exemption) is not the same thing as forcing it on others.
He also calls on Catholics to be involved in promoting the common good of society. This does not mean, however, that Catholics can justify contradicting the Church as part of their public involvement. Instead, we should apply the principles of Natural Law – which the Church can help us to understand – in forming laws and a just society. As you engage with the government and society around you, remember that we have a duty to God and Country, but that only one of those lasts forever.
In Christ,
-Fr. Albert