Read the Catechism in a Year
Day 265 - Authority and Faithful Citizenship
The Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.
How is authority exercised correctly?
Authority is exercised properly when it is understood according to Jesus’ example as service. It must never be arbitrary.
Jesus showed us once and for all how authority should be exercised. He, the greatest authority, served others and took the last place. Jesus even washed the feet of his disciples (Jn 13:1–20). The authority of parents, teachers, educators, and superiors is given to them by God, not so that they can lord it over those who are entrusted to their care, but rather so that they might understand and exercise their duty of guiding and training as service.
What duties do citizens have toward the State?
Every citizen has the duty to cooperate loyally with the civil authorities and to contribute to the common good in truth, justice, freedom, and solidarity.
A Christian, too, should love his homeland, defend it in various ways in times of need, and gladly offer to serve civil institutions. He should exercise the right to vote and even run for office and not shirk the duty to pay just taxes. Nevertheless, within the State the individual citizen remains a free man with fundamental rights; he has the right to offer constructive criticism of the State and its organs. The State is there for the people, not the individual for the State.
When must we refuse to obey the State?
No one may follow orders from the State that violate God’s laws.
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 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. (YOUCAT questions 375-377)
Dig Deeper: Corresponding CCC section (2234-2257) and other references here.
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