A Kingship Not of This World
By John F Doherty, Public Discourse.
In its Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, the Catholic Church gave its answer to the question whether the force of civil law may make baptized Christians, or anyone, conform to Catholic teaching.
In the Middle Ages, many bishops endorsed such means, including the execution of heretics and bloody religious warfare. More recently, and in keeping with the more ancient view of the Church, popes have taught forcefully that, although temporal government must acknowledge God’s supreme authority over human affairs, it is not its place to enforce prohibitions of sins beyond murder, theft, and other crimes against the natural law.
Dignitatis Humanae took the latter position. It reaffirmed that the “unique true Religion subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church,” and that every person and society is bound to seek truth “and once it is known, to embrace and keep it.” Nevertheless, it pointed out that “the truth does not impose itself otherwise [than] by the force of the truth itself” on “the conscience of men.” Therefore, “for a public authority, through force or fear or other means to impose on citizens the profession or rejection of any religion, or to impede anyone from entering or leaving a religious community” is, in the original Latin, nefas or “absolutely forbidden,” as the official English translation of canon law translates the word. (Canon law applies the word nefas to certain especially grave sins, such as a priest’s divulging publicly a penitent’s confession or his consecrating the Eucharist outside the Mass.)
Much ink has been spilled over the Declaration’s philosophical argument. But perhaps more interesting, and compelling, is its argument from the deeds and words of the founder of Christianity himself. Anyone who has studied the Gospels—or read any of the many popular commentaries on them—cannot but conclude that Jesus intended to build his kingdom only, as Dignitatis Humanae says, “by witnessing to the truth” and “by the love whereby [he], lifted up on the cross, draws all men to Himself.”
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