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Reverend Father Angelo,
I am writing to ask you a question on a topic that is very dear to me, because it has significantly marked my journey of conversion from atheism to the Roman Catholic faith.
About a year and a half ago, being the history buff that I am, I gathered ample documentation about the “ideologies” between the years 700’s and ‘800’s,  and I was impressed by the philosophy of the catholic absolute monarchy that considers a monarch to be such “by the grace of God”.
I therefore started feeling admiration toward many characters who shared this belief, like the Dukes of my city, Modena (Francis IV and V of Austria-Este),  or the post-Napoleon reactionary catholics (like Antonio Capece Minutolo, Prince of Canosa), and in general all the european legitimists who fought for the restoration of the legitimate kingships embodying the ideals of catholic christendom and of absolute monarchy (like the miguelists in Portugal, the carlists, still present in Spain, and the jacobites in England).
I would like to ask you if this belief is still reflected in the catholic doctrine, and if so, how does this interface with the modern historical-political panorama.
I thank you and remember you in my prayer.
Matias 

Priest’s answer

Dear Matias,
1. Your email gives me the opportunity to recall some of the principles of the social doctrine of the Church.
The first principle is the following: just as individuals cannot provide for all their needs by themselves, society, being a group of individuals, would not be able to survive if each of its members pursued his own interests without considering the needs of the other individuals and of the society itself.
By the same token society would in no way be able to exist without a discipline (a law) directing the single individuals to converge toward the promotion of common good.

2. It is true that man is naturally sociable, and this can be seen especially in times of calamity.
However it becomes necessary to establish a coordinating principle, some authority (“auctoritas”, from “auctum”, supine of “augeo”:  to increase), whose specific task is to promote the common good, by coordinating the individual actions, and by safeguarding it from disgregation and oppression.

3. According to catholic belief authority flows from the natural order originating from God as a creator and legislator. In this sense St. Paul says that “there is no authority except from God” (Rm 13,1).
Our Lord’s words “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mt 22,21), mean that authority originates in the divine order.
By obeying to Caesar one obeys to God, who assigns to civil authority autonomous power in the temporal order.

4. In this sense the catholic belief, which corresponds to the social doctrine of the Church, distinguishes itself from a theocratic view where the monarch is constituted and consecrated by God, and also from an immanentist view, according to which authority originates from men and would have no other power than what is given by men themselves.

5. John XXIII in his encyclical Pacem in terris, very clearly states: “Human society can be neither well-ordered nor prosperous without the presence of those who, invested with legal authority, preserve its institutions and do all that is necessary to sponsor actively the interests of all its members. And they derive their authority from God, for, as St. Paul teaches, “there is no power but from God” (Rm 13,1-6).
In his commentary on this passage, St. John Chrysostom writes: “What are you saying? Is every ruler appointed by God? No, that is not what I mean, he says, for I am not now talking about individual rulers, but about authority as such. My contention is that the existence of a ruling authority—the fact that some should command and others obey, and that all things not come about as the result of blind chance—this is a provision of divine wisdom.” (Epist. Ad Romanos, chapter 13). God has created men social by nature, and a society cannot “hold together unless someone is in command to give effective direction and unity of purpose. Hence every civilized community must have a ruling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, has its source in nature, and consequently has God for its author.” (Leo XIII, Immortale Dei)” (n.19).

6. The same pontiff continues” “But it must not be imagined that authority knows no bounds. Since its starting point is the permission to govern in accordance with right reason, there is no escaping the conclusion that it derives its binding force from the moral order, which in turn has God as its origin and end. Hence, to quote Pope Pius XII, “The absolute order of living beings, and the very purpose of man—an autonomous being, the subject of duties and inviolable rights, and the origin and purpose of human society—have a direct bearing upon the State as a necessary community endowed with authority. Divest it of this authority, and it is nothing, it is lifeless…. But right reason, and above all Christian faith, make it clear that such an order can have no other origin but in God, a personal God, our Creator. Hence it is from Him that State officials derive their dignity, for they share to some extent in the authority of God Himself.” (Pius XII, Christmas radio message 1944, n.9 (n.20).

7. These premises are necessary to make sense of the words that impressed you: “King by the grace of God”.
This expression had no meaning other than to remind us that authority, together with its power to govern comes from God according to the natural order, and not because God chose to give it to a particular individual.

8. However, since the time of the Sacred Roman Empire, the Church started adopting a rite of crowning by which she proclaimed as authentic that particular authority.  This had serious consequences: if that authority violated the boundaries of the natural law, it could be excommunicated by the Pope.
Which exonerated the people from obedience and from paying the taxes.

9. Since the French revolution the expression “by the grace of God” became just a formula, that later on was abandoned and disappeared.
The truth remains that authority originates from a natural order that is willed by God, and that its scope of command is limited to the natural law that is knowable to all men of good will.

Wishing you constant progress in your journey of conversion from atheism to the Catholic faith , I thank you for your prayer, I assure you of mine and I bless you.
Father Angelo