The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-06-03
letter TO THE EDITOR
CIVIL AUTHORITY.
St. Paul, Mimi, May 20, 1916.

Irish capital, it may not be out OF
place to consider some of the moral
principles involved
Civil authority is from God accord.
ing to revelation. But the political
philosopher inquiries how it comes OF
God. Aristotle gave lis the answer four
hundred years before st. Paul wrote
his Epistle to the Romans. Aquinas
was the first Christian philosopher
who, making Aristotle's doctrine his
own, proved that civil authority was
OF God, because it was essential to
the human nature of which God was
the author. Man is social animal
Civil society is necessary to human
nature. Civil authority is necessary to
|civil society. But civil power is of no
avail without civil obedience. There.
fore is civil obedience necessary to
human nature. Now God commands
whatever is necessary to human
nature. Wherefore God commands
obedience to the civil power and at
the same time commissions the civil
power to rule.
God was free not to create natures
destined to reach their full perfection
only in society, which is the Well-or-
ganized state, but once human natures
are thus created God Himself is no
longer free to leave human beings
without the obligation of living up to
their natures. For God is infinite In
telligence and cannot act aimlessly
Everything that He does, He does for
an end. He wishes all His creatures
to reach the end that fits their natures
best. Therefore His commands follow
the lines of natural exigency And
since man cannot reach the perfection
which his nature demands without
living in society, since without its aids
he cannot attain to tie full stature
which it beheoves rational animal to
measure up to, so to speak, thus it is
stray from the lines which his reason
tells him he is to walk in, and adopt
an inOrdinate course of action.
God must command every free creature
to act up to that nature wherein He
has created it, and must place man
under moral obligation of conducting
himself as BELTS Q member of society,
that is Of obeying the laws of the
state of which he is a unit Thus
obedience to the civil powers which is
an essential of human nature becomes
for every citizen bounden duty, and
disobedience which is an evil for the
same human nature is advanced to
sin.
Civil authority then is of God not
by positive institution, but because
God is the author of nature and nature
as constituted by God imperatively
demands that civil societies, called
states, be organized, in order that man
be enabled to reach his end in man
ner fitting his noble essence as a ra-
.tional creature. -
Civil authority must be set UP and
obeyed. 1t is of the essence of society.
Mans nature absolutely requires all
this; and what mans nature absolute
ly requires for it's well-being or abso-
lutely repudiates as repugnant to it,
God must command or forbid. God
then forbids anarchy because it is in
trinsically civil. So God is at the back
of every state binding men in con-
science to observe the laws of the
state, provided these laws are within
the sphere of it's competence.
Thus far we have been considering
civil authority in the abstract. The
political philosopher can demonstrate
from reason what the Catholic theo-
Logan teaches on the authority of
Revelation. To get down to the con-
crete acts of civil government and the
citizens obedience thereto, what
powers must the members of the COM
monwealth obey? The answer is, they
must obey the powers that be. There
is no use in sentimental reverence for
authority in the abstract as long as
one refuses submission to the govern
ment of the day. If the powers that
be are just and legitimate rulers, all is
we'll. Obedience to a kind master is
sweet and easy. But if the. govern
ment be tyrannical by usurpation or
oppression, what then? In general,
obey the powers that be even though
the yoke be little CALLING. A tyran-
nical government by usurpation is had
when the legitimate government is I'M
justly displaced. If the usurping
authority is in peaceful possession
under these circumstances it is the
bounden duty of the subject to obey it.
If the powers that be are tyrannical
by oppression, that is, if they rule
arbitrarily and oppressiyely, then
their laws are not according to reason,
absolutely speaking their mandates
are rather perversions of law than
real laws.
What is to be the line of conduct
adopted by the subject of such author
ity in civil matters? This is a most
difficult question. Passive resistance
to an unjust law is legitimate, even it
becomes a precept if the laws are inn
moral Even active resistance in self
defence is lawful, because it is ones
right to repel the encroachments of an
unjust aggressor. But what about ac-
tive resistance that becomes offensive
to the extent of citizens taking it upon
themselves to overthrow the estab-
lished civil authority. One school Of
tfeologians teaches that such re-
sistance is absolutely unlawful be-
cause they reason that the right Of
the civil authority to rule is not lost