Catholic Social Doctrine: Morality's Hold on Power and the Just Exercise of Authority

the fundamental order under which authority's power is to be exercised is the moral order that was established by God

Since power exercised without regard to authority is tyranny, denial of a moral order and of a natural moral law is tantamount to tyranny.  And this is true whether the form of tyranny is in the form of one (monarchy or dictator) or the form of many (democracy).  Tyranny is not based on form, but on substance.  Tyranny exists whenever power--wherever it is to be found and in whatever manner exercised--acts without reference to an objective moral law.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - The Roman poet Horace wrote in one of his poems:

Power without wisdom falls by its own weight:
The gods themselves advance temperate power:
And likewise hate force that, with its whole
Consciousness, is intent on wickedness.

Even the pagan poet recognized that power must be tempered, guided by something which he calls wisdom, or it becomes wicked.

In Catholic Church's view, the fundamental order under which authority's power is to be exercised is the moral order that was established by God, the creator of heaven, earth, and man.  In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas binds this law to wisdom when he says that the Eternal Law, in which man's moral law participates, is nothing else than a type of Divine Wisdom. 

The exercise of power must conform to this moral law or it acts outside the will of God.  Therefore, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states succinctly the principle that is forever the bane of tyrants: "Authority must be guided by the moral law." (Compendium, No. 396)

It is from the moral order established by God that human authority obtains its moral legitimacy and the power to impose obligations.

There is no moral law without reference to God, since the moral order has God as the fons et origo, the fount and origin, and the finis ultimus, the final end.  We cannot escape it, though we may fool ourselves for a time that we can.

"All of [authority's] dignity derives from its being exercised within the context of the moral order, 'which in turn has God for its first source and final end.'" (Compendium, No. 396) (quoting Pope John XXIII, Pacem in terris, No. 270)

In fact, recognition of the existence of God is absolutely necessary to prevent the advent of tyranny, because the moral order upon which authority relies "has no existence except in God; cut off from God it must necessarily disintegrate." (Compendium, No. 396) (quoting Pope John XXIII, Mater et magistra, 450) 

The modern loss of the sense of God therefore suggests not freedom, but oppression.

The moral order precedes authority, and is the basis of authority, which is to say that authority is nothing but tyranny without it.  Authority--which is a moral concept--should therefore be distinguished from power--which is a legal, political, social, historical, or practical concept.  Tyrants wield power--a legal, political, or practical reality--arbitrarily, without regard to the moral law, and hence they undermine their own foundation. They may have power, but they have no authority over us. Sic semper tyrannis!

Since power exercised without regard to authority is tyranny, denial of a moral order and of a natural moral law is tantamount to tyranny.  And this is true whether the form of tyranny is in the form of one (monarchy or dictator) or the form of many (democracy).  Tyranny is not based on form, but on substance.  Tyranny exists whenever power--wherever it is to be found and in whatever manner exercised--acts without reference to an objective moral law.

Since authority flows from the moral law, it follows that authority will "recognize, respect, and promote essential human and moral values."  These human and moral values are built in human nature so to speak, and, as John Paul II felicitously phrased it in his encyclical Evangelium vitae, "flow from the very truth of the human being and express and safeguard the dignity of the person."  These human and moral values, the great Pope continues, are such that "no individual, no majority, and no State can ever create, modify, or destroy." (Evangelium vitae, 71).

The collapse of moral consensus in the West caused by the rejection of an objective moral order--the natural moral law--which leads to a vicious skepticism or relativism in morality therefore forebodes a frightening return of tyranny.  This, of course, has been famously referred to as the "tyranny of relativism" by Pope Benedict XVI.

The inability to appreciate an objective moral order is also tied to the increased secularization of social, political, and legal life. We act as practical atheists. We act as if God did not exist.

"If, as a result of the tragic clouding of the collective conscience, skepticism were to succeed in casting doubt on the basic principles of the moral law, the legal structure of the State itself would be shaken to its very foundations, being reduced to nothing more than a mechanism for the pragmatic regulation of different and opposing interests."  (Compendium, No. 397)

The world has groaned, and finds itself in this "tragic cloud" where all moral truths are denied and God's providence is said no longer to offer guidance.  Our moral vision thus obscured we walk lemming-like right into the pit of tyranny, squeaking about freedom, squeaking about rights, while sloshing into the slough of moral decay, where men marry men, women marry women, and men and women, whether they marry or not, kill their offspring. 

Don't be fooled, we are behaving worse than the Romans at their very worst.

Since it is properly anchored in the moral law, authority properly exercised will enact just and moral laws.  As the Compendium summarizes the relationship between the natural moral law, authority, and positive laws, citing back to the principles so well-stated by St. Thomas Aquinas: "Authority must enact just laws, that is, laws that correspond to the dignity of the human person and to what is required by right reason. 'Human law is law insofar as it corresponds to right reason and therefore is derived from the eternal law. When, however, a law is contrary to reason, it is called an unjust law; in such a case it ceases to be law and becomes instead an act of violence.'"  (Compendium, No. 398) (quoting S.T. IaIIae, q. 93, a. 3, ad 2)

The laws of ours that allow moral enormities such as homosexual marriage and abortions are unjust laws, and are the harbinger of tyranny, indeed already tyrannous. 

But it's not too late to avoid tyranny.  We might appropriately close these reflections with 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land."

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