377 CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TO THE STATE

YOUCAT Lesson 377

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

377  When must we refuse to obey the State?

No one may follow orders from the State that violate God’s laws.  [2242-2246, 2256-2257]

Henry David Thoreau's (1817-1862) classic essay Civil Disobedience inspired Martin Luther King and many other activists. This photo is from a daguerrotype that has been photo shopped to remove blemishes. …..377

It was Peter who called us to practice only a relative obedience toward the State when he said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts of the Apostles 5:29).  If a State should establish laws and procedures that are racist, sexist, or destructive of human life, a Christian is obliged in conscience to refuse to obey, to refrain from participation, and to offer resistance.  379

 “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”  Matthew 22:21

[2242-2246, 2256-2257]

The duties of citizens

2242 The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:21.)⁴⁸ "We must obey God rather than men": (Acts of the Apostles 5:29.)⁴⁹ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of the natural law and the Law of the Gospel. (Gaudium et Spes 74 § 5.)⁵⁰ –CCC

2243 Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution. –CCC

The political community and the Church

2244 Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. The Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired truth about God and man:  --CCC

Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny, as history shows. (Compare Centesimus Annus 45; 46.)⁵¹ –CCC

2245 The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. "The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen." (Gaudium et Spes 76 § 3.)⁵² –CCC

2246 It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. The means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances." (Gaudium et Spes 76 § 5.)⁵³ –CCC

 IN BRIEF

2256 Citizens are obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order. "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). –CCC

2257 Every society's judgments and conduct reflect a vision of man and his destiny. Without the light the Gospel sheds on God and man, societies easily become totalitarian. –CCC