This is an article from the Italian periodical Renovatio. This was Cardinal Siri's publication which ran I believe from '67 - 1992. This article was written by Abp. Lefebvre in 1967. I used Google translate to render the English. I will also put this up on my archive.org page. Here is the article:
“Authority in the family and in civil society at the service of our salvation” Renovatio, April 1967: Mons. Marcel Lefebvre
In a recent public address last October, the Holy Father Paul VI warned against the erroneous interpretation of certain statements of the Council concerning the dignity of the human person, an interpretation that could lead to a denial of authority and a disregard for obedience. The numerous events we witness in this post-conciliar period, events that demonstrate the consequences of this false interpretation, justify the Holy Father's fears. Are we not shocked by the open revolts of certain Catholic Action groups against bishops, of seminarians against their superiors, of priests, monks, and nuns who demonstrate against authority, making its exercise impossible?
Human dignity, the exaltation of personal conscience, which has become the fundamental rule of morality, and personal charisms are pretexts for reducing authority to a principle of unity devoid of any power. How can we not condemn this ferment, a prelude to rebellion, of free inquiry, which has been the source of great calamities in past centuries? It seems more appropriate than ever to clarify the true concept of authority and, to this end, to demonstrate the benefits willed by Providence in the two natural societies of divine right, which have a primordial influence on every individual on earth: the family and civil society.
We like to remember that authority is the formal cause of society. Its purpose, therefore, is to govern, to direct everything it directs toward the final cause of society, which is a common good for all its members. Since these are intelligent beings, authority will necessarily guide their activity toward the common goal through directives or laws, whose application it will supervise, punishing those who oppose the common good.
The subject of authority will be designated in many ways, but the power that this subject possesses—that is, the ability to judge other human beings—is always a participation in God's authority. Since societies are many, the forms of authority may be very diverse, but they will never prevent authority from being of divine origin: "There is no power that does not come from God" (St. Paul, to the Romans, XIII, 1), "You would have no power over me unless it were given you from Heaven," Our Lord says to Pilate (St. John, XIX, 11).
In his philosophical treatise (T. IV, 384), Jolivet describes the primary origin of authority as follows: "God alone has the absolute right to command, because such a right, consisting in coercing the wills of others, can only belong to the One who gives being and life. Furthermore, God is "the living law" because He is the first principle of all that is. It follows that every author... In any society, authority cannot be exercised except by delegation from God; every leader invested with legitimate power is God's representative.
Authority has as its goal the common good of its members, and the members themselves desire to achieve this good; there should therefore be no divergence between authority and its subjects, since they pursue the same goal. There should not, in itself, be opposition between leader and subject, between authority and freedom.
It is when authority does not seek the true common good, or when the subject places his own good before the common good, that there is disagreement. Until proven otherwise, legitimate and prudent authority is the judge of the common good, and subjects must submit a priori to this judgment. To allow personal judgment to precede that of legitimate authority is the destruction of society. Submitting to the directives of legitimate authority means exercising the virtue of obedience, of which Our Lord gave us a moving example by sacrificing His life for obedience: "Obediens unque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis."
Saint Pius X wrote in the letter "Our Apostolic Mission" of August 25, 1910: "Does not all human society, made up of independent and unequal creatures by nature, need an authority to guide their activity toward the common good and to impose its law?... Can one say with even a shadow of reason that there is an incompatibility between authority and freedom unless one is seriously mistaken about the concept of freedom? Can one teach that obedience is contrary to human dignity and that the sa- (p. 186)
Conforming to religion, tradition, and custom. Would men accept "permitted authority"? Perhaps the apostle Paul was not thinking of human society at every possible level when he urged the faithful to submit to authority? Perhaps a religious state founded on obedience would be contrary to the ideal of human nature? Were the Saints, who were the most obedient of men, slaves and degenerates?
It is therefore clear that authority is the cornerstone of all society. Benefits of authority in the family unit. If there is a period of human life during which authority plays an important role, it is precisely the period from birth to adulthood. The family is a marvelous institution within which man receives life, a life so conditioned that he will require a long period of education, imparted first by his parents, then by those who contribute to this education, initially chosen by the parents.
The child receives everything from his father and mother: physical, intellectual, and religious nourishment, moral and social education. They are assisted by teachers who, in the minds of young people, share the authority of their parents. It is true, however, that almost all knowledge acquired during adolescence, whether from teachers or parents, is more learned, received, and accepted than acquired through intelligence and the evidence of judgment and reasoning. The student trusts his parents, his teachers, and his books, and so his knowledge expands and multiplies.
Science itself, the kind that can account for the knowledge acquired, is very limited. If we consider childhood and youth in humanity and throughout history, we see that the authority that teaches plays an even more important role in teaching than the evidence of acquired knowledge. When it comes to higher education, young people certainly learn in a more personal way and strive to understand the subjects as deeply as their teachers.
But does the sheer amount of knowledge required today allow students to delve deeply into tests and experiments? After all, many subjects like history, geography, archaeology, and art can only be based on trust in teachers and books. This is even more true for religious knowledge, the practice of religion, and the exercise of morality. (P. 187)
They generally live according to the religion passed down by their parents. Conversion to another religion encounters a huge obstacle in the break with the ancestral religion. A human being always remains sensitive to the call of the mother's religion. And let us also say how important the education provided by the family and by all the teachers who complement family education is in human life. Nothing is more deeply rooted in the individual than family traditions. And this is true throughout the world.
This extraordinary influence of family, environment, and education is providential. It is willed by God. It is normal for children to retain their parents' religion, just as it is normal for the whole family to convert when the head of the family converts. This example is often given in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles. God has willed that his graces be transmitted to humanity primarily through the family. This is why he granted the father of the family that great authority that gives him immense power over the entire family unit, over his wife, and over his children. The greater the goods to be passed down, the greater the authority. When a child is born, he is so weak, so imperfect, we might say so incomplete, that from this we can understand the necessity of the family and its indissolubility. Wanting to exalt the child's personality and personal conscience to the detriment of family authority is to make children unhappy, to push them to rebellion and to despise their parents, while long life is promised to those who honor their parents. Of course, St. Paul asks parents not to provoke their children's anger, but he adds: bring them up in discipline and in the fear of God (Eg. 6:4).
We stray from the path established by God if we maintain that truth alone, with its strength and light, must show men the true religion, while in reality God has provided that religion be transmitted through parents and witnesses worthy of the trust of those who listen to them. If we had to wait to understand religious truth before believing and converting, there would be very few Christians today. We believe in religious truths because the witnesses are worthy of trust due to their holiness, their selflessness, their charity. We believe in true religion because it satisfies the deepest desires of the human soul, particularly by providing a divine Mother, Mary, a visible Father, the Pope, and divine nourishment, the Eucharist. (P 188)
Our Lord did not ask those He converted if they understood, but if they believed. Living faith gives understanding, as St. Augustine says. It is clear that, in the case of the family unit, from the first moment of every human life, the benefits of authority are immense, indispensable, and that it is the surest path to a complete education that prepares for life in civil society and the Church. It goes without saying that we must not forget the considerable assistance the Church offers the family, an indispensable assistance for Christian life and human perfection. But the time will come when the family will have to withdraw and make way for two societies, civil society and the Church: so evident is it that, even educated, human beings are incapable of living and following their earthly vocation without the help of both.
Benefits of Authority in Civil Society
Can it be said that, having reached adulthood, man no longer needs assistance to continue advancing in his knowledge, to maintain virtue, and to fulfill his role in society? If the family unit has fulfilled its essential role, it is clear that civil society and the Church remain the normal means of providing man—one the spiritual means, the other the social environment conducive to a virtuous life oriented toward the ultimate end, to which everything on earth is ordered by Divine Providence. In this regard, it is worth repeating, along with the traditional teaching of the Church and all the Popes of the past century: the State and civil society have an important role to play among citizens, to help and encourage them in faith and virtue. This is not at all a matter of coercion in the act of faith, or in the conscience of the individual in his interior and private acts. It is a natural task of civil society, willed by God to help men achieve their ultimate end.
Leo XIII states in the Encyclical Libertas:
"In fact, human society, whether considered in its component parts, or in the authority which is its formal principle, or in the purpose to which it is ordered, or in the great benefits that flow to man from it, there can be no doubt that it is from God."
Pius XI states in turn (Divini Redemptoris): "But God has also ordained man to civil society, re- (P. 189)
demanded by its very nature. In the Creator's plan, society is a natural means, which man can and must use to achieve his end, since human society is for man, and not vice versa.
And again (Ad salutem): "Princes and rulers, having received power from God, strive within the limits of their own authority to realize the designs of divine Providence, with which they are collaborators. Not only must they do nothing that could prejudice the laws of justice and Christian charity, but they are also required to facilitate for their subjects the knowledge and acquisition of imperishable goods." Pius XII also says (June 11, 19%): "The good or evil of souls depends and derives from the form given to society, whether or not it conforms to divine laws; that is, whether men, all called to be vivified by the grace of Christ, breathe, in the earthly contingencies of the course of life, the healthy and life-giving air of truth and moral virtues, or vice versa, the morbid and often deadly microbe of error and depravity."
Father Jolivet (Traité de Philosophie, T. IV, Morale no. 435) concludes his study on the origin of power in civil society very clearly: "Whatever the point of view one takes in seeking the efficient cause of social reality, the doctrine of the natural origin of society implies this essential principle: political society, permanently uniting particular groups of families and individuals for the sake of a temporal common good, is an institution willed by God, the author of nature, or, in other words, it is of natural law. It follows that the power to govern is also of divine natural law."
The author completes this by explaining the purpose of civil society or the State: "It is to significantly diminish the general function of the State, to adopt a completely materialistic idea of temporal well-being. Temporal happiness depends largely on the intellectual and moral virtues of citizens and on public morality, that is, on the happy development of all human moral and spiritual activities, and first and foremost, the religious life of the nation. It is also the duty of the State, without neglecting, of course, any of its economic functions, to strive to create the most favorable conditions for the moral and spiritual prosperity of the nation. This task has a negative and a positive aspect...
We must insist on this connection between the temporal functions of the State. Herein lies the key to numerous problems that preoccupy governments and the Church itself today: the problems of (p.190)
Social justice, the problem of hunger, peace, the problem of birth control, etc. Addressing these issues outside of a Catholic worldview is illusory. We may attempt to temporarily calm some disorder, resolve some local problems, but we will never get to the root of humanity's wounds.
We must repeat what the Church has always proclaimed: the solution to social problems lies in the social kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is known and taught by the Catholic Church. "Without me, you can do nothing," says Our Lord (John 15:5). If we list the current plagues of society, we will immediately see that their origins are caused by the disorder and error of governments and often by many members of society.
To seek to establish social justice between workers and employers without the principles of Christian justice is to move either toward totalitarian capitalism, global financial and technocratic hegemony, or communist totalitarianism. Making material well-being the sole purpose of civil society and social activity is to rapidly advance toward decadence, a consequence of immorality and hedonism. In the case of marriage and all that pertains to it, only Catholic doctrine truly preserves this institution, the foundation of civil society, which is consequently the most affected; divorce, birth control, contraceptives, ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity, and polygamy are mortal plagues for society. Only the Church provides true remedies. Social relations between administrators, between the state and its citizens, true patriotic love, and international relations are intimately and profoundly linked to religion; and only the Catholic religion provides the principles of justice, equity, and human dignity consistent with life as God intended and always intends it.
Education and the means of social communication that today complement and continue education have very close ties to honest morals, to virtue or vice, and consequently to true religion. It is a sign of ignorance, or feigned ignorance, not to recognize that all religions, except the true, Catholic religion, bring with them a following of such social evils that are the shame of humanity. Consider divorce, polygamy, contraceptives, and free love in the family; consider also, in the realm of social existence, the two tendencies that ruin it: a revolutionary, destructive tendency. (P. 191)
Distrust of authority, a demagogic tendency, a source of constant disorder, the fruit of free self-examination: and a totalitarian, tyranny tendency that makes individuals or the party in power the foundation of law. Religious freedom constructed as the foundation of public law by virtue of a so-called natural law, an exaltation of individual conscience that goes so far as to legitimize conscientious objection, are contrary to the common good. This is what the Magisterium of the Church has always taught as immutable doctrine.
The history of recent centuries is a striking illustration of this reality. It is therefore inconceivable that Catholic governments would lose interest in religion or that they would allow religious indifference in public life as a matter of principle. This would be to ignore the purpose of society, the extreme importance of religion in the social sphere, and the fundamental difference between true religion and other religions in the field of morality, a crucial element in achieving the temporal purpose of the State.
This is the doctrine always taught by the Church. It confers on society a crucial role in the exercise of virtue by citizens, and therefore indirectly in the pursuit of eternal salvation. Faith is a fundamental virtue that conditions the others. It is therefore the duty of Catholic governments to protect faith, to support it, and to foster it, especially in the field of education. We cannot fail to insist on the providential role of state authority in helping and supporting citizens in achieving eternal salvation.
Every creature on earth has been and remains ordered to this purpose. Societies: the family, civil society, the Church, each in its own place, were created by God for this purpose. Indeed, it cannot be denied that the experience of the history of Catholic nations, the history of the Church, and the history of conversion to the Catholic faith, so clearly demonstrate the providential role of civil authority that it must legitimately be affirmed that its role in achieving the eternal salvation of humanity is paramount, if not preponderant. Man is weak, the Christian is wavering. If the entire apparatus and social conditioning of the State is secular, atheistic, non-religious, and even more so persecutory of the Church, who would dare say that it is easy for non-Catholics to convert and for Catholics to remain faithful? Today more than ever, with the modern means of social communication, (p. 192)
In modern times, with multiplying social relations, the State has considerable influence on the behavior of its citizens, on their interior and exterior lives, consequently on their moral attitudes and ultimately on their eternal destiny. This is unfortunately true for those who are intellectually, morally, and economically weaker. It would be criminal to encourage Catholic states to secularize, to ignore religion, to indifferently allow error and immorality to spread, and, under the false pretext of human dignity, to allow a ferment that dissolves society.
Pope Pius XII said (Summi Pontificatus): "Civil sovereignty, in fact, was willed by the Creator to regulate social life according to the prescriptions of an order immutable in its universal principles, to make it easier for the human person, in the temporal order, to achieve physical, intellectual, and moral perfection, and to help him reach his supernatural end."
Thus, whether it is the authority of the family, the authority of the State, or the Church, one cannot help but admire the plan of Providence, of the divine Fatherhood that grants us existence, supernatural life, the exercise of virtue, and ultimately perfection and sanctity through these authorities.
Authority is, ultimately, a participation in Divine Love, which extends and spreads by itself. Authority has no other reason for existence than to spread that divine charity which is life and salvation. But like the Love of God, it is demanding by nature. Indeed, divine Love can desire nothing but the Good, and the supreme Good is God. God, by giving us life, which is a participation in His love, decisively orients us, directs our life toward the Good that He indicates to us, both through our nature and, above all, through His spokesmen and His intermediaries in positive laws. He obliges us, binding us with His Love to Goodness and virtue. He directs His Love through His laws, commands their execution, and threatens us if we reject His Love, which is our Good. So it is with authority. All legitimate legislation is a vehicle of divine love; every enforced law is nothing other than the expression of God's Love in deeds and actions, and therefore an acquisition of virtue. (p. 193)
These laws address our intellect and our will, which, unfortunately, can refuse to be the vehicles of God's Love. Punishments will fall on those who stand in the way of Love, Life, Goodness, and ultimately, God. Authority cannot be conceived without the powers of legislation, governance, and justice. These three manifestations are summarized and synthesized in divine Love, which in itself carries its manifestation, its exercise, and its sanction. May we, in concluding this incomplete dissertation on the greatness of authority in God's plans, share the sentiments of St. Paul and say with him: (Eph. 2:14-19) "I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth proceeds."
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Topic: Abp. Marcel Lefebvre "Authority in Family/Society" (1967 Renovatio Card. Siri) (Read 50 times)