Below we print the sermon of Fr Constantine Najmowicz delivered on Sunday, November 6, 2022 in the chapel of the Brotherhood of St Pius X in Warsaw.
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Today’s Gospel tells us to consider a delicate question about the Catholic’s relation with the state. The substance is delicate, that we know that the state has an armed arm, and erstwhile something in the state fails, it frequently abuses this armed arm, especially erstwhile the children of the Church claim God's laws in the state. If we look at history, we can see specified saints as Thomas Becket or John Fisher, or Thomas Morus, who gave their lives under the sword of the ruler, due to the fact that they dared to talk about these delicate matters of Catholic relations to the state. Our homeland besides knows specified martyrs. It is adequate to remind the patron of Poland of St. Stanislaus bishop from Szczepanów, but besides of the 1 who was modern to us – priest Jerzy Popieluszko, who besides had to give his life erstwhile dealing with these delicate matters, due to the fact that the armed arm of the state did not want to decision them. Nevertheless, those who came to the Lord Jesus--the herodians and the Pharisees, of course, persuading and falsely saying to the Lord Jesus, in total, the actual thing: "You do not consider persons." Our Lord Jesus Christ did not pay attention to persons. Whether it was King Herod, or it was the Roman emperor, or it was the Sanhedrin who was always faithful to the truth, due to the fact that he had to be faithful to himself, for he is the Truth, and he besides requires it of the children of the Church, that we should not pay attention to persons, not to all kinds of agreements and compromises, but to always adhere to the Truth, due to the fact that as Christ himself said, "only the fact will set you free." Therefore, this issue should besides be looked at in our context.
Among Catholics there are 3 contradictory attitudes towards the state. One, I think a comparatively uncommon occurrence is any kind of anarchy. This is simply a sense of freedom to the degree that the sense of the thought of the state as specified is denied, and thus acting in specified a way as if this country were not at all. This is an illusion, due to the fact that whether we want or not, we live in a peculiar country and nevertheless benefit from certain benefits that this peculiar country gives us. If we want to get something, we usage the means of money. We have money due to the fact that there is simply a monetary unit in a country and we usage it whether we like it or not. We may want them not to be and to exchange goods, but this is the reality and we usage this reality. If we want to go somewhere, we request an ID or a passport. And again, individual can live “why do I request these documents, due to the fact that it is adequate that I am, my face, my word is enough.” But this is beyond our capabilities, due to the fact that wherever we go, they can ask us about documents, in any countries definitely, where the passport is required, at the border they will ask us – “Please show the passport”. And it's not adequate for my face and my word to enter a country. And if we go into any country where there's an chance to enter without a passport, we can always be checked and find out that we have no documents, we may be in large trouble. Thus, we have the strength to benefit. The state that has the military besides gives safety to its citizens. due to the fact that if the state were completely defenseless, there is simply a good chance that it would cease to be very rapidly and become a prey of any more powerful powers that would be rich at the expense of those people who would not be protected. For this reason, the approach that I am not curious in the institution of the state is absolutely non-Catholic. In fact, we see in the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ besides does not act against the institution of the state, and even repeatedly shows that he truly respects the state power which he says is given from heaven. Namely, here specifically, erstwhile he says that the emperor should be given what is imperial, Pilate tells that “you would have no authority over me if it had not been given to you from above.” So it's surely not that we can just unpunished the institution of the state.
But there is besides another equally utmost position, which unfortunately occurs more frequently and fresh times have shown that this reasoning somewhere there is profoundly rooted in our brains. Namely, the state is above everything. Actually, there is simply a cult of the state. This is an thought not entirely Latin, not Catholic, but Byzantine. It is this Byzantine view that the state puts above everything and attributes everything to the state, including the Church. And we see this, for example, in the realities of countries that have based on Byzantine civilization, whether in the east or in the west. Certain states undoubtedly functioned, and the worship of the state caused even these spiritual organizations to be assigned to this cult and to service to strengthen and legitimize its power, which it would not do. And power, in turn, as absolute, could do anything due to the fact that nothing happened above it. This view, which we call Byzantineism, but besides in a kind of fascism, is besides unacceptable to a Catholic. Here it turns out that he gives himself to the emperor what is divine – worship. It is not for this reason that the Lord God created this institution, which is the state, that we should worship it. This does not fit in any way within Latin civilization.
But the fact is (and we should do so) that indeed man belongs to 2 communities, which theology calls "civitas perfecta," or perfect community. 1 of these communities is the Church, and the another community is the state. all man belongs, or at least should belong to these 2 communities due to his dual nature. The state is to aid man in matters of this temporal life, and the Church is to aid man in matters of spiritual life. The state cares about the temporal welfare of the citizen, The Church, in turn, has a work to care for spiritual welfare. From what I have already said, we have the right proportion: the Church and state, these 2 perfect communities, are to service man. A state in this temporal dimension, but that does not mean that it is out of spiritual responsibilities.
There is surely any overlap and the state is committed to caring for the spiritual welfare of its citizens. The first is that the state should aid citizens choose what is good and true, so it must reduce what is false and harmful. Therefore, alleged religiously neutral states fall into a trap that later leads to all the degrengolade that we can observe in any country that is known to us more closely. If the state says that it cannot justice which religion is actual and which is false, it de facto says that these moral principles are besides unrecognizable. So we can have a set of ideas that are conflicting, and depending on the wisdom of the stage, we can choose this once, erstwhile that. erstwhile we can stand guarding human life and punish any effort to interrupt this life, whether in the womb or in the lives of older people, cripples and sick people, and at another phase wisdom will be different and we will vote on all those who burden us with budget, or are unwanted by individuals or society we can destruct for good, for the comfort of others. And in fact, the state falls into a trap where everything can be voted on. And so it does not fulfil its role, due to the fact that it does not uphold the law of God, which is revealed in nature and in a supernatural manner by the Lord God to us. The state besides has a work as civitas perfecta, to offer public worship to God. If he does not do so, he again fails to do his job, goes beyond his competence, saying that all cult is allowed, and that the state as a community does not fulfil any cult, due to the fact that it cannot discern which religion which religion is true. Thus, a country that cannot admit the fact and separate it from falsehood undermines its authority. Unfortunately, we do not find at the minute countries that fulfil this basic work to worship God. And it is not so much that this cult is performed by outward rites, although it should be, but above all by adoration of truth, designation of fact and following fact primarily in legislation. If the state functions badly, then there is simply a tendency very rapidly to become a fascist or a Byzantine state.
It is simply a sign that the country to be served becomes the 1 to be served, first of all, the oppression and fear that you usage towards your citizens. If citizens are afraid of their own country, they feel insecure in state institutions, then at this point we are in a serious crisis. And just look at the last 2 years, what the countries used, including our – precisely fear and oppression. If you do not accept certain preparations (of course with a cynical grin they say “there is no coercion, you do not gotta accept”) you will not go in there, do not do this or that, you cannot do anything. And in the end, you can starve to death due to the fact that you're gonna lose your job, your earnings, you can't go to the store, etc. But of course there is no coercion. Ministers will smile, “everyone can choose, we do not force anyone.” erstwhile a state compels a man to participate in a medical and intellectual experimentation of global scope, it is simply a violation of the task that the state has: protecting a citizen from dangerous measures that individual wants to service him. And if the other is done, if the authorities advance measures that later prove ineffective and, in many cases, very harmful, who will say at least "I apologize" in a country that is sick? No 1 will say "I'm sorry" but he will go into the same rhetoric due to the fact that the authority of the state's institutions must be defended. But power can't be wrong. It's scary and it's a very dangerous situation.
When the issue of taxation arises, this is the second sign whether the state functions well or badly. surely taxes must be paid, and Jesus himself says so. But is all taxation to be paid? surely from the fiscal side, all taxation must be paid and it can cost us a lot to evade it. But does the tax, which causes that, at the minute you pay it, the man who conducts his business has nothing to live for, nothing to pay his employees for and no money for his family, or is specified a taxation fair? Is specified a taxation morally justified? People frequently ask, “Please, do I have a sin if I do not pay all my taxes?” That depends, of course, on the circumstances. In any countries, certainly. It will be a sin if individual evades taxes due to the fact that these taxes are just and man, having paid them, can function and make as decently as possible. But at a time erstwhile he cannot, there is surely no sin before God if he does not pay everything. The state will surely pursue, but there will surely be no sin before the Lord God. We have in our consciousness coded that we are to service the state, we are to keep all institutions, we are to keep the Social safety Office. All these institutions are growing, the bureaucracy is growing, and we gotta give more and more money to make all of this work. due to the fact that ZUS should be for us, on the service of the citizen, all authoritative should be for us in the service of the citizen, all intuition should service the citizen in order to make his life easier. And then the state functions normally. If it's the another way around, if a man can't get into a clerk's office, and if he gets in, he's having quite a few problem getting anything done, that's a sick situation. That means something's incorrect with this community.
When the state imposes on us certain ideologies which are unthinkable, unacceptable, or introduces certain things which are required by political correctness, it is essential to say what Saint Peter said to the Sanhedrin, to the judaic sovereignty: “You must obey God more than you.” The Catholic has the right erstwhile the state ceases to service and becomes oppressive, demoralizing, has the right, and in any cases even the work to oppose. At a time erstwhile we are deprived of fundamental rights, specified as the right to worship, due to the fact that access to the church and the armed arm of the state are very limited, so that the citizen does not get to it, it cannot be said, "the state has decided and I must obey." Nope. "Hear God more than you." That's the main thing.
To sum up our reflections, it must be made clear: on the 1 hand, any negation of the state institution is absolutely unthinkable for the Catholic, any form of anarchism is absolutely incompatible with the Catholic doctrine; but on the another hand, if we want to give the emperor what is divine, at this point we are besides acting contrary to our faith. Only erstwhile a state institution is in the service of a citizen or a subject, depending on the system, erstwhile it truly cares that a citizen can profess actual religion and well-being in prosperity and peace, then the state is entitled to anticipate any support. The state does not produce money, and in order to support itself, to keep the military or another public institutions, it undoubtedly needs taxation money and they are absolutely justified. But they always should be fair. It cannot be that people must starve to death by keeping the state.
Fr Constantine Najmowicz FSSPX
