May 27 Tue
What are the fields of action of the Church and the State?
The common good cannot be secured without the efficient direction provided by authority. Authority is the natural and necessary link for ensuring the cohesion of the social body. The obligation to submit to it is thus based on the moral force that defines it, not on its coercive power, although using coercive means within the limits of the common good is legitimate. Authority cannot treat free persons as mere robots, since it is precisely meant for their service.
To avoid the political community being ruined while everyone follows their own opinion, an authority is needed to guide the energies of all towards the common good, not mechanically or despotically, but by acting above all as a moral force based on freedom and a sense of responsibility.
The core point is that the State, like the Church, receives its authority from God. Therefore, the State has a duty of obedience to God, obedience which cannot be arbitrarily limited to what can be known by reason, excluding Revelation. So, Pope Leo XIII says, the State has duties, among these, to profess, protect, and foster religion, and not just any religion, but the true Faith.
The dictates of civil authority can bind in conscience only when they agree with the Law of God. If there is a conflict between human and divine law, a Christian must always obey God rather than men.
The state must regulate social life and serve society. Rulers must avoid disorders in the exercise of civic rights. They must ensure that the private interests of some individuals do not prevail over the rest, and that there is due harmony between the reciprocal rights and duties of each person.
Human dignity demands that the state respect the moral dignity of the person, which has been granted by God himself. The state must thus strive to build a healthy moral environment, which will encourage citizens to practice virtue.
Ordinarily, state authorities must encourage personal and social initiatives, rather than take their place. The state must coordinate and direct these according to the interests of the common good. In this field, the function of the state must be guided by the principle of subsidiarity.
As an example, parents are the first and primary educators. Theirs is the ultimate responsibility for the education of their children. Thus, they have the right to delegate part of that education to appropriate educational institutions that agree with their moral and religious convictions. This is no right of the state, whose role is to facilitate the exercise of this primary and inalienable parental right, instead of encroaching upon it.
Pope Leo XIII condemned the vision of freedom of speech and opinion as indifference or equivalence among all religions.
“The Church considers it unlawful to place the various forms of divine worship on the same footing as the true religion. The Church does not condemn those rulers who, for the sake of securing some great good, or of avoiding some great evil, allow patiently custom or usage to be a kind of consent for each kind of religion having its place in the State.”
Pope Leo compared the relationship between the Church and the State to the harmony between the soul and the body. Thus, the State’s indifference toward God and true religion brings evil consequences.
Thus, for the good of society, a synthesis must be integrated of the whole magisterium on Church, State, and religious liberty.