Can a Pope Know More About Liberty Than the Founding Fathers?

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 5:20 pm by Frank Weathers

Can a Pope Know More About Liberty Than the Founding Fathers? 2017-01-24T17:20:13-05:00 Frank Weathers

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Jotting down a few thoughts on Liberty, and from whence it comes…

See for yourself.

The liberty of those who are in authority does not consist in the power to lay unreasonable and capricious commands upon their subjects, which would equally be criminal and would lead to the ruin of the commonwealth; but the binding force of human laws is in this, that they are to be regarded as applications of the eternal law, and incapable of sanctioning anything which is not contained in the eternal law, as in the principle of all law. If, then, by anyone in authority, something be sanctioned out of conformity with the principles of right reason, and consequently hurtful to the commonwealth, such an enactment can have no binding force of law, as being no rule of justice, but certain to lead men away from that good which is the very end of civil society.

Therefore, the nature of human liberty, however it be considered, whether in individuals or in society, whether in those who command or in those who obey, supposes the necessity of obedience to some supreme and eternal law, which is no other than the authority of God, commanding good and forbidding evil. And, so far from this most just authority of God over men diminishing, or even destroying their liberty, it protects and perfects it, for the real perfection of all creatures is found in the prosecution and attainment of their respective ends; but the supreme end to which human liberty must aspire is God.

–Pope Leo XIII in 1888, from the encyclical entitled Libertas Praestantissimum.

For thoughts on how this relates to the HHS Mandate, see the post If the “Mandate” is Law, Are We Bound to Obey? over at Standing With Eden Foods.

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