3 - Chief Duties of Christian Citizens - Section 3 - Pope Leo XIII

Catholics have greater duties in life compared to those who do not share the Catholic faith. Jesus Christ commanded all men to learn and believe in the truths He taught, and failure to do so means eternal damnation. Once a person embraces the Christian faith, they become subject to the authority of the Church, led by the Roman pontiff. While it is important to love and defend one's country, Christians have a greater duty to love and defend the Church, which leads to eternal salvation. Sometimes, there may be a conflict between the demands of the state and the requirements of religion. In such cases, it is necessary to prioritize obedience to God over pleasing men. Christians hold public authority as sacred, but if the laws of the state go against the laws of God and harm the Church, it becomes a duty to resist them. This is not rebellion, but rather a defense of true justice. St. Paul and St. Peter both emphasized the importance of obedience to God over the laws of men It cannot be denied that life has more and greater duties for Catholics than for those who either hold not the Catholic faith at all or who entertain wrong ideas concerning it. When after purchasing redemption for mankind, Jesus Christ bade His apostles preach the gospel to every creature, He at the same time laid upon all men the duty of learning and believing the truths which He taught. And without the performance of this duty, we cannot gain everlasting salvation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned. Mark 16, 16. But when he has embraced the Christian faith as he is bound to do, man thereby becomes subject to the church. For being born of her, he is made a member of that great society, the supreme government of which, under her invincible head, Jesus Christ, has been entrusted only to the Roman pontiff. If, then, the law of nature bids us above all to love and defend the state in which we have been born and brought up, so that the good citizen will not be loath even to die for his country, much more is it the duty of Christians, in like manner, to love and defend the church. For the church is the holy city of the living God, born of Him, made by Him, a pilgrim indeed upon earth, calling and instructing men, and leading to eternal bliss in heaven. We have, therefore, to love our country, which has given us this mortal life. But it follows of necessity that we should have a greater love for the church, to which we owe the life that will endure forever, because spiritual good is rightfully preferred to that of the body, and our duties to God have a much greater sanction than those which we owe to our fellow men. If we wish to come to a right judgment, the supernatural love of the church and the natural love of our country are principles having the same eternal source, God Himself being the author and cause of both. Hence it follows that the one duty can never be opposed to the other. It is in our power, and we are bound to fulfill both duties, to love ourselves, to bear good will to our neighbor, to cherish the commonwealth and the authority that rules over it, and at the same time to look upon the church as our mother, and to love God with the utmost love of which we are capable. Nevertheless, these duties are sometimes set aside, either through stress of the times or by the wickedness of men. Not unfrequently it happens that one way of acting seems to be required by the state and another by religion, for the reason that the rulers of the commonwealth either despise or would subject to themselves the sacred power of the church. Hence arises a conflict and an opportunity for making proof of virtue. Two different powers press upon us, and when they command things in themselves contrary, it is impossible to render obedience at one time to both. For no man can serve two masters, Matthew 6.24. If we obey one, we must need to disobey the other, and no one ought to be in doubt as to which of the two must be obeyed. It is a sin to disobey God for the sake of pleasing men. It is wrong to break the law of Jesus Christ in order to obey the magistrate, or under pretense of civil rights to transgress the laws of the church. We ought to obey God rather than men, Acts 5.29. The answer which Peter and the rest of the apostles were wont to give the governors when they laid unlawful commands upon them must always be made once for all on such occasions. There is no better citizen, either in peace or war, than the Christian who is mindful of his duty, and he ought to suffer everything, even death itself, rather than forsake the sight of God and of the church. The force and the nature of laws are not properly understood by those who blame this firmness in the conflict of duty and call it rebellion. We speak of matters known to all and of which we have already treated. Law is but the order of right reason, proceeding from lawful authority for the common good. There is no true and lawful authority except that which comes from God, the sovereign Lord of all, who alone has power to give man authority over his fellow man. There is no right reason which is contrary to truth and to the law of God, and no true good which does not accord with the highest imperishable good, or which leads astray the will of man from the love of God. Christians hold public authority as sacred, and acknowledge therein a likeness and image of the majesty of God, even when power is in unworthy hands. They render just and due obedience to law, not per force or through dread of chastisement, but from a consciousness of duty. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, 2 Timothy 1.7. But if the laws of the state are openly at variance with the law of God, if they inflict injury upon the church, if they clash with the dictates of religion, or set at naught the authority of Jesus Christ which is vested in the supreme pontiff, then indeed it becomes a duty to resist them, and a sin to render obedience, and a wrong done to the state, because every wrong done to religion is also an offense against the state. Hence it appears how unjust is the charge of rebellion, for due obedience is not refused to the chief and to the makers of the laws, but only to those commands which they have no power to make, because clashing with the law of God they are unjust and anything but laws. You know, venerable brethren, that this is the very doctrine of St. Paul the Apostle, who when he told Titus that Christians were to be admonished, to be subject to princes and powers, to obey at a word, also adds to be ready to every good work. Acts 4, 19-20, which would show that if the laws of men should make any enactment against the eternal law of God, it would not be right to obey them. In like manner the prince of the apostles courageously made answer to those who refused him permission to preach the gospel, if it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.