St. Thomas Aquinas and Politics

Beni Culturali

Politics is the science which has for object the organization of the State in view of the complete Common Good of the citizens in the natural order, and the means that conduct to it. As the final end of man is, however, not merely natural, the State, charged with the temporal social order, must ever act in such wise as not only not to hinder but to favour the attaining of man’s supreme end, the vision of God in Three Divine Persons. Political thought and political action, therefore, in an ordered State, will respect the jurisdiction and guidance of the Catholic Church, the divinely instituted guardian of the moral order, remembering that what is morally wrong cannot be politically good. In connexion with this latter point we may quote the words of Pope Pius XI:

” It is part of the trend of the day to sever more and more not only morality, but also the foundation of law and jurisprudence, from true belief in God and from His revealed commandments. Every positive law, from whatever law-giver it may come, can be examined in the light of the natural law, as to its implications, and consequently as to its moral authority to bind the conscience. The laws of man that are in direct contradiction to the natural law bear a terrible initial defect that no violent means, no outward display of power can remedy. By this standard must we judge the principle: ‘What helps the people is right.’ A right meaning may be given to the sentence, if it is understood as expressing that what is morally illicit can never serve the true interests of the people. But even ancient paganism recognised that the sentence, to be perfectly accurate, should be inverted and read: ‘ Never is anything useful, if it is not at the same time morally good. And not because it is useful is it morally good, but because it is morally good, it is also useful’ (Cicero, De Officiis, 30). Cut loose from this rule of morality, that principle would mean, in international life, a perpetual state of war between the different nations. In political life within the state, since it confuses considerations of utility with those of right, it mistakes the basic fact that man as a person possesses God-given rights, which must be preserved from all attacks aimed at denying, suppressing, or disregarding them.” Therefore, the natural or temporal Common Good should always be aimed at by those in authority in the way best calculated to favour family life, in view of the development of true personality, in and through the Mystical Body of Christ. Political action and legislation, especially in economic matters, must ever seek to strengthen family life and, accordingly, must not only not admit divorce, but must always aim, as far as possible, at benefiting citizens through their families. True political science will insist not only that the exercise of political power be according to the principles above outlined, but that the mode of accession to power and the means employed to retain power be in perfect accord with the moral law. Finally, the Society of Nations must be brought about not by the ruin of all that is involved in the Catholic concept of native-land, but by the union of all States in the recognition of the rule of Christ the King through the Catholic Church, the only supranational society. In some well-known passages of his work. On the Governance of rulers,(i) St. Thomas sums up the aims of a good ruler of a State as follows: “Because the happiness and moral rectitude of the present life have as end the happiness of heaven, it belongs to the ruler to procure the common good of the people in such wise as to enable them to obtain celestial happiness. Accordingly, he ought to command what leads thereto and, as far as possible, forbid what is opposed to it. The road that leads to true happiness and the obstacles to be encountered thereon are made known to us by the divine law, and it is the office of priests to teach that law, according to what we read in the Prophecy of Malachias, II, 7\ ‘For the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth.’ . . . The Ruler, therefore, instructed in the divine law, should make it his chief aim to see that the people subject to him should be able to live a good life. . . . Now that a man may lead a virtuous life two things are required. The chief requisite is virtuous action (for virtue is that by which one leads a good life). The other requisite, which is secondary and quasi-instrumental in character, is a sufficiency of material goods, the use of which is necessary for virtuous action.”

(Rev. Dennis Fahey C.S.Sp. , Mystical Body of Christ)