326 AUTHORITY MUST SERVE THE COMMON GOOD

YOUCAT Lesson 326, March 27, 2015

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

326  When does an authority act legitimately?

An authority acts legitimately when it works for the sake of the common good and applies just methods of attaining the goals thereof.  [1903-1904, 1921]

Photo: .....Civil authority in action serving the Chicago people.  This is a Brill electric trolleybus on West Fullerton Avenue operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). For a brief period in 1960, when laid off from a conservation job in Wisconsin during the slack winter months, I drove both electric trollies and diesel buses for the CTA.  It was a truly great way to meet and greet people.  My older brother Bob was a trolly and bus driver in Chicago for 35 years until his retirement. ...326

The people in a State must be able to rely on the fact that they live under a “government of laws”, which has rules that are binding for all.  No one is obliged to obey laws that are arbitrary and unjust or that contradict the natural moral order.  In that case there is a right, or in some circumstances even the duty, to resist.

“In all sciences and arts the end is a good, and especially and above all in the highest of all—this is the political science of which the good is justice, in other words, the common interest,”  Aristotle (382-322 B.C.)

1903-1904, 1921

ARTICLE 2
PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL LIFE

I. AUTHORITY

1903 Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, "authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse."(Pope St. John XXIII Pacem in Terris 51.)²³  --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

1904 "It is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper bounds. This is the principle of the 'rule of law,' in which the law is sovereign and not the arbitrary will of men."( Centesimus Annus 44.)²⁴ –CCC

IN BRIEF

 1921 Authority is exercised legitimately if it is committed to the common good of society. To attain this it must employ morally acceptable means. --CCC