CITIZENSHIP

Early in the fourth century A.D., when the Roman Empire was suffering the painful consequences of the barbaric invasions, Christianity was frequently blamed for the decline and impending downfall of the patria. After all, the new religion taught people to put their hopes in a “kingdom not of this world” and to “turn the other cheek.” By doing so, it undermined the practice of civic virtue and weakened the patriotic spirit of the citizenry. Once-invincible Rome was left soft and vulnerable to outside attack.

St. Augustine set out to refute these charges in his correspondence with influential persons of his day, pagans and Christians alike, and ultimately in his great work the City of God. Any thoughtful person could see, argued Augustine, that Christianity teaches just the sort of virtue most conducive to the well-being of a republic: love of justice tempered with mercy; fidelity and moderation; dedication to the common good even at the cost of private pleasure, wealth, or honor. Moreover, God’s grace given through the new dispensation strengthens fallen and redeemed man in the arduous practice of such virtue. Good citizenship is an integral part of the duty to love our neighbor. Yet the good Christian citizen is freed of the illusion that Rome – or any other earthly nation – is eternal. His virtuous deeds are ultimately directed toward fulfilling his duties to the truly Eternal City, the City of God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church takes up the topic of citizenship, especially in the chapters entitled “The Human Community” (1877-1889) and “You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself” and “The Fourth Commandment” (2196-2246). Due to “the communal character of the human vocation” (subhead preceding CCC 1878), human persons exist not as isolated, autonomous individuals, but rather as members of various societies, in particular the family and the political community. Charity begins at home, as popular wisdom has it, and so our obligation to love our neighbor begins (but does not end) with the other members of our particular communities. Hence the Catechism discusses citizenship primarily in terms of the positive responsibilities or duties of citizens. At the same time, however, the Church reminds public authorities of their grave duty to respect, facilitate, and coordinate the contributions of each and all to the common good. Such responsible participation is only possible when civil rights and liberties are upheld to the greatest extent possible.

Rights and Duties of Citizens • While the specific obligations of citizens will vary significantly among the different forms of political regime, some general requirements include the following.
Citizens should contribute to the well-being of society by responsibly performing their roles in family, profession, and various voluntary organizations. They should further participate in public life and political activity in the ways and to the extent permitted by the constitution of their nation, their talent, time, inclination, etc. Being a good citizen is not simply a question of abiding by the laws; it requires initiative and active participation, working together with legitimate authorities and fellow citizens to foster the common good “in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom” (CCC 2239).

Citizens have the duty to respect legitimate political authority and to obey its directives in all that pertains to the common good. This does not mean that citizens are relegated to the realm of “subjects,” passive “yes-men” who have no need to think for themselves nor duty to form and follow their consciences. On the contrary, they have the duty to speak and/or act when civil authority oversteps its limits or enacts policies that seem detrimental to the community’s well-being. And should authority betray its mission and command acts clearly opposed to natural or divine law, hence to the moral good of persons and community, the citizen must refuse obedience to these directives. Such “civil disobedience” should be exercised with great prudence and, in all but the most extreme situations, without recourse to violence. It is a witness to the truth that might does not simply make right, and that, when forced into an “either-or” situation, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29; cf. CCC 2242 and Pope John Paul II, encyclical The Gospel of Life, Evangelium Vitae, 68-74 [1995]).

While the basic rights and duties of citizens are shared by all Christians, the Church teaches that it is not ordinarily the task of religious or “the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life” (CCC 2442). Rather, this is the proper role and responsibility of the lay faithful, together with their fellow citizens of other creeds. Laypeople are fully engaged in the world, and have as an integral part of their vocation the task of imbuing temporal activities with the spirit of the Gospel. In his postsynodal exhortation The Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People, Christifideles Laici (1989), Pope John Paul II urges lay Christians to take seriously their civic duties: “In order to achieve their task directed to the Christian animation of the temporal order, in the sense of serving persons and society, the lay faithful are never to relinquish their participation in ‘public life,’ that is, in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good. The Synod Fathers have repeatedly affirmed that every person has a right and duty to participate in public life, albeit in a diversity and complementarity of forms, levels, tasks and responsibilities. Charges of careerism, idolatry of power, egoism and corruption that are oftentimes directed at persons in government, parliaments, the ruling classes, or political parties, as well as the common opinion that participating in politics is an absolute moral danger, does not in the least justify either skepticism or an absence on the part of Christians in public life” (42).

The Holy Father further stresses that, in order to perform well their civic tasks, the laity must fight “the temptation of being so strongly interested in Church services and tasks that [they] fail to become actively engaged in their responsibilities in the professional, social, cultural and political world; and the temptation of legitimizing the unwarranted separation of faith from life, that is a separation of the Gospel’s acceptance from the actual living of the Gospel in various situations in the world” (Christifideles Laici, 2; cf. 59-60).

St. Augustine wrote that “it is difficult not to err” in our attempts to recognize and fulfill the “duties pertaining to human society” that arise from the great commandment of love. If we as citizens are to do so, more is required than just a vague good will toward others and toward the community as a whole. The citizen must strive to acquire and practice personal virtue, including temperance, courage, or fortitude, and above all justice and prudence. He or she must receive an adequate civic education, through which to come to an understanding of the principles underlying the political society. This education should underline the strengths of one’s regime, but also prudently reveal its inevitable weaknesses. In this context, Catholics should feel a special responsibility to deepen their knowledge of the Church’s social teaching. In this way they will be better prepared to strive to improve their country, to make it more in accord with true justice and goodness.

This sort of civic education fosters genuine patriotism, a heartfelt but moderate attachment and gratitude to one’s country, as opposed to a vicious and blinding form of nationalism. As sharers in a common human nature, we are called to be more than just citizens of a given earthly republic. We are “citizens” of what the Stoic philosophers termed cosmopolis, the universal city or community. Our patriotism and care for justice must therefore transcend national borders; our “neighbor” is our fellow human being in material or spiritual need. And, as Augustine taught so forcefully, our civic participation in this world finds its ultimate meaning in our calling to be first and foremost citizens of the City of God.

See: Authority; Cardinal Virtues; Church and State; Civil Disobedience; Civil Law; Common Good; Laity; Politics; Social Doctrine.

Suggested Readings: CCC 1900-1901, 1913-1917, 2197-2200, 2234, 2237-2243, 2248, 2255-2256, 2442. Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 42-43, 52, 65, 68, 72, 74, 76. Leo XIII, Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens, Sapientiae Christianae. John Paul II, On Social Concerns, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 42, 47; The Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People, Christifideles Laici, 36-44, 59-60; The Hundredth Year, Centesimus Annus, 44-52. St. Augustine, City of God, and Letters 91, 137, 138.

Mary M. Keys




Russell Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. Copyright © 1997, Our Sunday Visitor.

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Last Updated: Sunday, April 01, 2001 03:24:19 PM