Replies

Here’s the catechism. Based on scripture, whatever FR catholic haters like to say Obey the law. If a civil law violates God’s law, then we must disobey it. “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,” says the Catechism (#2242).Nov

That this validates the American revolution is another matter of interpretation. Here’s the judgment of one (among others) from https://catholicexchange.com/121409 versus what FR catholic promoters like to say:

As the power to legitimately rule a people derives from the consent of the people, so the thinking goes, then it is perfectly legitimate for these same people to deny consent when the government deprives people of their rights...This pattern of argument must be rejected by the faithful Catholic.

In his encyclical Diuturnum , Pope Leo XIII writes plainly:... But from these, Catholics dissent, who affirm that the right to rule is from God, as from a natural and necessary principle...”

Consequently, Pope Leo argues, the ruler,

“will by that very reason immediately acquire a dignity greater than human […] Whence it will behoove citizens to submit themselves and to be obedient to rulers, as to God..."

The entire encyclical is worth reading in full, but these selections should put to a definitive end any idea among Catholics that a repeat of our revolutionary war may be justified. This becomes even clearer when we take seriously the fact that our initial Revolutionary War was illegitimate and cooperation with it immoral

And of-course, TradCaths oppose the Reformation, and are fond of medieval Catholicism, which condemns such beliefs as that, "liberty of conscience and liberty of worship are the inalienable rights of every citizen." (Pope Gregory XVI, “Mirari Vos,” August 15,1832)

and

"that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship.” (Section X, Errors Having Reference to Modern Liberalism, #78. http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P9SYLL.HTM)

and that

"it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion be the only religion of the State,"
and

"That it is against the will of the Spirit to burn heretics at the stake is condemned as false." (Pope Leo X, “Exsurge Domino,” 1520)

but can

extort from all heretics by torture a confession of their own guilt and a betrayal of all their accomplices. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.asp)

Yet it was also once commanded,

• We furthermore forbid any lay person to engage in dispute, either private or public, concerning the Catholic Faith. Whosoever shall act contrary to this decree, let him be bound in the fetters of excommunication. — Pope Alexander IV (1254-1261) in “Sextus Decretalium”, Lib. V, c. ii: http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/archive/index.php/t-51631.html

• Quinisext Ecumenical Council, Canon 64: That a layman must not publicly make a speech or teach, thus investing himself with the dignity of a teacher, but, instead, must submit to the ordinance handed down by the Lord, and to open his ear wide to them who have received the grace of teaching ability, and to be taught by them the divine facts thoroughly.