CHURCH AND STATE.

New Zealand Tablet, 22 January 1920, Page 35

CHURCH AND STATE.

Now, it follows (said the Rev. E. Boylan, S.J., during the course of a recent lecture he delivered at the Cathedral Hall, Melbourne), from what has already been said, that Almighty God, the source of all authority, has divided the charge of the human race between two perfect societies, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the Church and the State, the one having for its aim the supernatural and eternal interests of man, and the other his natural and temporal interests. Each society, in its own class, is supreme; each is contained within fixed limits, limits which are defined by the purpose for which it has been instituted. Thus, the end of the State is the temporal welfare of its subjects. It seeks to realise the conditions which are requisite in order that its members may enjoy temporal felicity. It protects the rights and promotes the interests of the individual or the groups of individuals that belong to it, and employs natural means in order to do so. All other societies which aim in any manner at temporal good are necessarily imperfect. Either they exist ultimately for the good of the State itself, or, if their aim is the private advantage of some of its members, the State must grant them authorisation and protect them in the exercise of their various functions. Should they prove. dangerous to the general welfare, the State can justly dissolve them. Now, the Church, as we have already seen, likewise possesses all the requisites of a perfect society. Its end being the salvation of —that is, the spiritual welfare and the eternal felicity of manit is manifest that it is not subordinate to any other society. For this is the highest end or purpose that any society can have. And hence, its end being superior to that aimed at by the State, the mere temporal welfare of man, it follows that the Church is in no way subordinate to the State for its right to exist, nor is it dependent on the permission of the State for the attainment of its end. Its right to exist is derived, not from the permission of the State, but from God, Who is its Founder. Its right to preach the Gospel, to administer the Sacraments, to exercise jurisdiction over its subjects, is not conditional on the authorisation of the civil power. If it were, she would never liave come into existence. Our Divine Lord warned His disciples that they would be persecuted by the civil authorities. “Beware of men. For they will' deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues, and you shall be brought before governors and before kings for My sake.' (Matt, x., 18.) And to the command of the civil authorities that they should desist from preaching, Peter and the Apostles simply replied; “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts v., 29.)