[Question:]{.underline} How should a Catholic react to a government that is openly hostile to the Faith?
[Answer]{.underline}: This question is always a topical one, since it is really the application of Our Lord’s words: “Render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt 22:21). This application is all the more difficult as Caesar himself is established by and dependent upon Almighty God, and yet constantly enters into contradiction with the Almighty. Hence there have always been persecutions, and always will be, as Saint Pius X once stated, considering that persecution can be considered the fifth mark of the Church, and a sign of its refusal to compromise with the world. Throughout the 19^th^ century it was the freemasonic revolutionary governments that attacked the Church, her religious, and her priests. Throughout the 20^th^ century it was the various Communist regimes. Now open government hostility to the Faith is entering into our so-called “free” countries.
Many examples could be given for the 21^st^ century. Recent legislation in Canada and the U.K. has made it obligatory for Catholic adoption agencies to provide children for adoption to homosexual couples, without discrimination. Such a law is immoral and cannot possibly be observed, even if it means that the Catholic adoption agencies cease all activity. The same is the case in Victoria, Australia, where a proposed law would give legal recognition equivalent to marriage to “couples in a relationship who are not married, including providing marriage-like legitimacy to same sex intimacy,” which legal recognition would have to be recognized by Catholic social organizations. This amounts to a redefinition of marriage as opposed to the natural law, which is the law of God Himself. The same could be said of the proposed legislation presently before the Colorado legislature, which would bar charitable agencies from receiving state funding if they discriminate on the basis of religion in personnel policies---for example, when a Catholic agency hires Catholic employees. This is opposed likewise to the divine law that requires that acts of charity be an expression of the unity of the Catholic Faith.
The Catholic principle in fighting against all such iniquitous laws is that of passive resistance (Prummer, Man. Th. Moralis, II, §601). This resistance is called passive, for although Catholics must constantly refuse all obedience to laws that contradict the divine law, they must also acknowledge that all legitimate authority receives its power from God, and respect it as much as possible. This is the teaching of St. Peter when he says: “Be ye subject therefore to every human creature for God’s sake…for so is the will of God that by doing well you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” St. Paul teaches the same thing when he states: “He that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation” (Rm 13:2).
Yet resistance there must be, whenever the civil law contradicts the divine law or ecclesiastical law. The Catholic will consequently willingly choose imprisonment or martyrdom rather than to observe a civil law that is opposed to the law of God. However, the resistance is passive and not active, provided that the governmental authority is legitimate. For active resistance is armed combat against the government, and it is clearly taught by Pope Pius IX that Catholics may never rebel against a legitimate leader (Syllabus, Prop. 63). Such was the case of the Thebeian legion under St. Maurice in present-day Switzerland, in the 3^rd^ century. Although the 2,000 armed men could have resisted, they put down their weapons and allowed themselves to be slaughtered rather than compromise the Faith.
However, this does not preclude all legitimate means of defense of the Church, and of God’s laws, such as peaceful demonstrations, books, pamphlets, the internet, and the like. Nor does it preclude all the just means at the disposition of Catholics, such as pressure on elected representatives. It is in fact obligatory in conscience to use these means, as much as it is in our power to do so, to defend the law of God, the authority of the Church, and the Social Kingship of Christ.
Yet the Catholic is not a revolutionary, and must maintain his respect for legitimate authority even when it commands something immoral. He may, however, cease the special activity in question, in order to avoid the sanctions foreseen by law. However, in so doing he caves in to the pressure for secularization, and for removal of the Church from all charitable work and social activity, a part of the denial of the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also permitted to cooperate with such unjust laws, provided that there is no sin involved, if it were considered the lesser evil and the most prudent thing to do. This could, perhaps, occasionally apply to the hiring of non-Catholics, but not as a regular practice for Catholic charities and schools, and certainly never to the providing of children for adoption by homosexuals, for this would be tantamount to recognizing homosexuality as a Catholic alternative, which is directly opposed to the divine law.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.