The Church's Right to Make Laws

"Behold, I send my messenger before thy face." St. Matthew, 11:10.

One of the mightiest monarchs of the world was the first Napoleon. All of Europe was at his feet. 1804 was the year set for his coronation as emperor, and he invited Pope Pius VII to do him that honor. The Little Corporal tried to persuade the Pontiff to move the papal throne to Paris. With high-sounding language and energetic gestures the conqueror set before the Holy Father the apparent advantages of such a change.

"How well you act comedy," the Pope remarked.

Incensed, Napoleon snatched up a drawing of St. Peter's at Rome, tore it to bits and exclaimed: "This is what I will do to the Church! I will completely crush her."

"Now you act tragedy," the Pope said calmly.

And tragedy it proved to be. Twice Napoleon practically put the Pope into prison. Then he grabbed the states of the Church. Exactly four days after that move, Napoleon suffered his first defeat in battle. And the Pope, a prisoner, old and weak, knew his rights and his duty. He excommunicated the emperor, who cried out in his rage: "Does the Pope think his excommunication will cause the guns of my soldiers to fall out of their hands?"

Yet, that is literally what happened. A few years later, in 1814, when Napoleon attacked Russia, almost all his troops, half a million strong, perished in the wintry weather. The guns actually dropped from the frozen hands of his soldiers. The end came rapidly. Napoleon was taken prisoner, exiled, and given plenty of time to realize the might and power of Him who said: "He who hears you, hears me; and he who rejects you, rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me." St. Luke, 10:16.

History has borne out the right of the Church to govern in all things spiritual. The Church has the power to make and to enforce laws.

1. Reason proves that. Place the Church on the lowest possible footing, look at it merely as some sort of organization, and at once you realize that it has the right to make laws for its members. Where is the club that does not have a head and a set of rules? Show me any organization, and it will have some regulations to guide its members.

2. But the Church is more than a mere club. It is a kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is a kingdom that stretches beyond all kingdoms. It reaches up to heaven itself. It reaches into every comer of the earth. It reaches down into the depths of the human heart. It includes men of all regions, classes and colors. Its laws are not man-made but God-made.

3. Christ gave His Church the right to govern: "Amen I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven." St. Matthew, 19:18.

4. The Apostles understood that they had complete spiritual power. They said: "For the Holy Spirit and we have decided to lay no further burden upon you but this indispensable one, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from immorality." Acts, 15:28-29.

Their precepts came from Christ. (1 Thess., 4:2) St. Paul gave direc­tions regulating marriage between pagans and Christians. The Catholic Church, now with over 1 billion professed members, has a detailed set of regulations called Canon or Church Law. Of these rules six apply especially to all Catholics. They are:
1. To attend Mass on Sundays and holydays of obligation.
2. To fast and abstain on the days appointed by the Church.
3. To confess our sins at least once a year.
4. To receive Holy Communion at least once a year.
5. To contribute to the support of our pastor.
6. To marry according to the rules of the Church.

The Church has the right to make these laws and she has the right to enforce them. If a teacher has the right to impose a task, she has the right to see that the task is performed, even by punishment. The Church pun­ishes disobedient members by denying the sacraments, Holy Mass, and Christian burial. She does not want to hurt the offender, but to convert him.

It is true, the Church has no police force or army to enforce her penalties in a physical way. But nothing is more clear in history than that Christ has backed up, even in a physical, material way, the commands of His Church. Napoleon in the 19th century, Hitler in 20th, bear witness to Christ's hand in His Church.
Pope Pius VII could not fight back; could not call out an army; could not directly punish Napoleon. But God punished the offending emperor in a definite and strikingly appropriate way. Napoleon boasted that the Pope could not take the guns out of his soldier's hands. Those guns dropped out of their frozen hands a few years later in the Russian snows.

You and I must obey the Church's laws and regulations. They were made with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Of the Church we can say what Christ said of St. John in the Gospel: "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face."

The Church goes before us, showing the way, pointing out the right path, telling us what we are to do and what we are to not to do. The Church is God's mes­senger to you. Follow Christ's messenger.
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Adapted from Prayer, Precepts, and Virtues
by Fr. Arthur Tonne