In what sense does authority come from God?

Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I would like to ask you a question about an issue that may be somewhat outdated nowadays, namely that of the divine right of sovereigns.

I know that, according to the words of the Lord, political authority in general receives its power from God.

However, I also know that for many centuries it was believed—and, if I am not mistaken, also by the Church herself—that the sovereigns of the European monarchical states, evidently belonging to very ancient dynasties, by virtue of this very belonging possessed a right to rule that came from God, which in some way seems to me to have been more special than the generic divine origin of civil authority. Was this perhaps determined in some way by the explicit papal legitimation of such rulers?

I therefore ask you in what way the value of legitimate monarchical authority should be correctly judged, and whether in its very legitimation it is in some way different from the authority of a republican state. If this were not the case, however, I then ask you for the reason why for so long the opposite was believed (while certainly not falling into the pagan divinization of the sovereign).

Thanking you, I wish you a good start to the week.

The priest’s reply

Dear friend,

1. First of all, it must be remembered that it is necessary for there to be an authority within society in order to promote the common good in a coordinated way and to guarantee order and peace.

It is true that Sacred Scripture says that “all authority comes from God” (Rom 13:1).

Jesus himself said that one must obey authority: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” (Mt 22:21).

This means that authority has its origin in a divine order. By obeying Caesar, one obeys God, who establishes civil authority with autonomous power in the temporal order.

2.In what sense does it come from God? Certainly not in the sense that God wills that that particular person should govern the community.

When the Church crowned a king and when, in certain proclamations, it was declared that a particular person was king by the will of God, what was meant was to acknowledge that that authority was legitimate and that citizens were bound to obey and also to pay taxes.

3. All this is well explained in the great encyclical Pacem in Terris (PT) of John XXIII.

In it one reads:

“Human society can be neither well-ordered nor prosperous unless it has some people invested with legitimate authority to preserve its institutions and to devote themselves as far as is necessary to work and care for the good of all. 

These, however, derive their authority from God, as St. Paul teaches in the words: ‘There exists no authority except from God.’ (Rm 13:1-6) These words of St. Paul are explained thus by St. John Chrysostom: ‘What are you saying? Is every ruler appointed by God? I do not say that, he replies. I am not dealing now with individual rulers, but with authority itself. 

My contention is that it is the divine wisdom, and not mere chance, that has ordained that there should be government, that some should command and others obey.’ Moreover, since God made men social by nature, and since no society can hold together unless someone be over all, directing all to strive earnestly for the common good; 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.”(Pit 19)

4. Authority, moreover, cannot command in an arbitrary manner. John XXIII further states: “But authority is not to be thought of as a force lacking all control. Indeed, since its starting point is the permission to govern in accordance with right reason, it derives its binding force from the moral order, which in turn has God for its first source and final end.”( Pit 20)

And: “[….] Authority is before all else a moral force. For this reason the appeal of rulers should be to the individual conscience, to the duty which every man has of voluntarily contributing to the common good. But since all men are equal in natural dignity, no man has the capacity to force internal compliance on another. Only God can do that, for He alone scrutinizes and judges the secret counsels of the heart. Hence, representatives of the State have no power to bind men in conscience, unless their own authority is tied to God’s authority, and is a participation in it. The application of this principle likewise safeguards the dignity of citizens. Their obedience to civil authorities is never an obedience paid to them as men. It is in reality an act of homage paid to God, the provident Creator of the universe, who has decreed that men’s dealings with one another be regulated by an order which He Himself has established. And men do not demean themselves in showing due reverence to God. On the contrary, they are lifted up and ennobled in spirit, for to serve God is to reign.”( Pit.22) 

 5. “Authority is a postulate of the moral order and derives from God. Consequently, laws and decrees passed in contravention of the moral order, and hence of the divine will, can have no binding force in conscience, since ‘it is right to obey God rather than men.’ (Acts 5,29). Indeed, the passing of such laws undermines the very nature of authority and results in shameful abuse.”(Pit 21) In this regard, John XXIII quotes St. Thomas, who states ‘Human law has the nature of law in so far as it partakes of right reason; and it is clear that, in this respect, it is derived from the eternal law. But in so far as it deviates from reason, it is called an unjust law, and has the nature, not of law, but of violence.’ (Summa Theologica, I–II, 93, 3, ad 2).

With every best wish, I bless you and remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo

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