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Authority |
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines authority as “the quality by virtue of which persons or institutions make laws and give orders to men and expect obedience from them” (1897). While in our society authority is often cast in a negative light – as indicated by the connotation of “authoritarian regimes,” for instance – in itself and independent of abuse, authority is a positive reality, rooted in divine providence and human nature. Without it, society would lack cohesion and direction. The maintenance of peace and the pursuit of a common goal would not be sustainable (think, for example, of a football team without a coaching staff, an orchestra without a conductor, a high-school class without a teacher). Genuine authority is not lording it over others for one’s personal advantage; it is rather a matter of rendering a very great service to others. Hence we speak of those in office as “public servants” and of the Pope as “the servant of the servants of God.” Church Teaching on Civil Authority • Of special importance for human life is the role of civil or political authority, which has as its task the defense and promotion of the temporal common good, most fully realized in the political community. Civil authority derives its justification or legitimacy, that which distinguishes it from mere force or power, from right reason and the pursuit of the common good. The New Testament epistles contain several indications that Christians should respect and obey civil authorities, for “[t]here is no authority except from God” (Rom 13:1). This statement of the Apostle Paul appears all the more radical, not to say disturbing, when one recalls that the reigning authority of his time was none other than the emperor Nero. Here the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, a Father of the Church, is of great help: “What are you saying? Is every ruler appointed by God? I do not say that, he [Paul] replies, for I am not dealing now with individual rulers, but with authority itself. What I say is, that it is the divine wisdom, and not mere chance, that has ordained that there should be government, that some should command and others obey” (homily; cited in Pope John XXIII, encyclical Peace on Earth, Pacem in Terris, 46 [1963]). Another Church Father, St. Augustine, distinguishes between true authority, exercised for the good of the governed and the peace of the community, and corrupt authority, lusting after domination and oppression, a consequence of sin. Political life as we know it presents powerful temptations in this second direction: “You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them” (Mk 10:42; cf. Lk 22:25). In his City of God, Augustine chronicles the progressive degeneration of the Romans’ political motivation, from the love of freedom, to love of glory, to love of power and domination. By contrast, “[i]n the household of the just man who ‘lives on the basis of faith’ . . . even those who give orders are the servants of those whom they appear to command. For they do not give orders because of a lust for domination but from a dutiful concern for the interests of others, not with pride in taking precedence over others, but with compassion in taking care of others” (City of God, XIX, 14; cf. 12 and 15). St. Thomas Aquinas builds on Augustine’s (and Aristotle’s) distinction between government of free people and mastery over slaves. Only the first sort is proper to family and political life. St. Thomas argues that, even in the absence of original sin, civil authority or government would likely have existed among humans. This is so for two reasons. First, the social nature of man requires that some in the community direct the many and varied activities of its members to a common good, that some be vigilant for the good of the others as their principal task or job. The second reason is that, even if sin did not exist, some persons would have advanced further in wisdom and justice than others. For the good of the community, it would follow that these should govern and direct their society: “[I]f one man greatly surpassed another in knowledge and justice, it would be all wrong if he did not perform this function [of principal or director] for the benefit of others; as it says in I Peter [4:10], ‘everyone putting the grace he has received at the disposal of each other.’ So Augustine too says, in Book XIX of the City of God, that ‘the just do not rule out of a lust to dominate, but out of the duty to look after things’ (ch.14); and ‘this is what the order of nature prescribes, this is how God instituted man’ (ch.15)” (Summa Theologiae, I, 96, 4; cf. 92, 1, ad 2; 96, 3). The Magisterium in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries has developed this perennial teaching on authority, relating it to modern forms of political life and articulating it in terms more accessible to people today. In Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, for example, we read that “[t]he persons who go to make up the political community are many and varied; quite rightly, then, they may veer towards widely differing points of view. Therefore, lest the political community be ruined while everyone follows his own opinion, an authority is needed to guide the energies of all towards the common good – not mechanistically or despotically, but by acting above all as a moral force based on freedom and a sense of responsibility” (emphasis added). Political authority should respect the principle of subsidiarity and endeavor to earn the consent of the governed, without which even the wisest leadership or best constitution may be rendered ineffective. Insofar as possible, “the choice of the political regime and the appointment of rulers are left to the free decision of the citizens.” Whatever concrete form civil authority takes in a given society, its central aim must always be “the formation of a human person who is cultured, peace-loving, and well disposed towards his fellow men with a view to the benefit of the whole human race” (Gaudium et Spes, 74). Role of Civil Authority • The particular duties of civil authorities include working for the common good, always using means that respect the natural law and the dignity of human persons. They must ensure that legislation and institutions reflect as far a possible a “just hierarchy of values,” and facilitate the citizens’ exercise of freedom and responsibility. Political authority must “practice distributive justice wisely,” with equity and “with a view to harmony and peace” (CCC 2236). Consequently, political authority may regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to property for the sake of the common good. In our own day, there is an especially urgent need for civil authority to safeguard and promote marriage and the family, and to protect human life from the moment of conception until natural death. Finally, civil authority must work for peace and provide for the common defense, imposing on citizens the obligations necessary to this end. When war seems unavoidable, those in office are responsible for evaluating the circumstances at hand in light of the principles of “just war doctrine.” (For a fuller exposition of these and other important functions of civil authority, see the sections of the Catechism listed below.) In the endeavor to fulfill their difficult and noble mission, those invested with authority have special need of the virtue of prudence regarding the common good and the means by which it may be effectively pursued. Moreover, being among those “who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others,” they must take particular care not to give scandal, whether in their personal conduct or by means of the customs, laws, and social structures they establish or administer (cf. CCC 2284-2287). Citizens on their part have a duty to respect and obey just authority and its legitimate demands. They have the correlative duty to resist corrupt authority when it commands acts against the divine law, the natural moral law, or the rights of the human person.
See: Church and State; Citizenship; Civil Disobedience; Civil Law; Common Good; Natural Law; Politics; Property; Religious Liberty; Revolution; Social Justice; Subsidiarity. |
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