Church-State Relations from a Catholic Perspective: General Considerations on Nicolas Sarkozy's New Concept of Laïcité Positive
JOURNAL OF CATHOLIC LEGAL STUDIES [Vol.
Journal of Catholic Legal Studies
Fr. Evaldo Xavier Gomes
Part of the Catholic Studies Commons Recommended Citation Fr. Evaldo Xavier Gomes (2009) "Church-State Relations from a Catholic Perspective: General Considerations on Nicolas Sarkozy's New Concept of Laïcité Positive," Journal of Catholic Legal Studies: Available at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/jcls/vol48/iss2/3
-
Article 3
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/jcls
Ph.D. in UtroqueIure (Canon and Civil Law). The author would like to thank
Professor Cole Durhan of Brigham Young University for his support and the staff of
the St. John'sLaw Review for their editorial assistance. This text was presented at
the Fifteenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium at Brigham Young
University (BYU) in Provo, Utah.
' Pope Gelasius I (492-496) in his letter Famuli vestrae pietatis (492) to the
Emperor Anastasius I, refers to "auctoritassacratapontificum et regalispotestas."
The same concept would influence subsequent Church-state doctrine. In the year
506, Pope Symmachus (498-514) in his letter Ad augustaememorie, writing also to
Emperor Anastasius I, reaffirms the existence of two powers: ecclesiastical and
temporal. The same concept appears also in the letter Proposueramusquidem (865)
of Pope Nicholas I (858-867) to Emperor Michael. Innocent III (1198-1216) using
the analogy of the sun and the moon ("duo magna luminaria in firmamento") to
explain the two powers ("duas magnas instituit dignitates"), "pontificalisauctoritas
et regalispotestas." Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) in his Bull Unan sanctam (1302)
applies the image of two swords, one representing the spiritual authority and the
other the temporal power ("In hac eiusque potestate duos esse gladios, spiritualem
videlicet et temporalem .... ."). See HEINRICH DENZINGER, ECHIRIDION SYMBOLORUM:
DEFINITIONUM ET DECLARATIONUM DE REBUS FIDEI ET MORUM (Herder 27th ed.
1974) (1854).
Law in the centuries ahead.2 According to this theory, the
Church is in charge of all issues of a spiritual nature, while the
Empire is in charge of its own temporal affairs. The theory's
main characteristic, among others, is that there is a division
between Church and Empire, each with its own "dignity" and
acting in its own sphere of competence.
One of the main arguments proposed by Gelasius to sustain
this theory is that the Church was founded by Christ with the
purpose of taking care of souls.' Temporal power, on the other
hand, exists for the care of temporal affairs.4 Thus, with
temporal issues the priest must obey the emperor, and in
spiritual matters, the emperor must obey the priest. Through
this "formula" Pope Gelasius tried to define the space the Church
occupies in human society.
The Pope's main target was the defense of the Petrine
primacy5 and the protection of the Church from the interference
of imperial authority in matters of faith. In other words, he
was trying to protect the Church from Caesaropapism6, or
symphonia,l in its Byzantine version, as a tendency in medieval
2 ENNIO CORTESE, LE GRANDI LINEE DELLA STORIA GIURIDICA MEDIEVALE 34-36
(I1Cigno Edizioni 2000).
3 ARCHBISHOP FRANCIS CARDINAL GEORGE, PONTIFICAL COUNCIL PLENARY
ASSEMBLY: THE CHURCH AND THE CHALLENGE OF SECULARISATION, WHAT KIND OF
DEMOCRACY LEADS TO SECULARISM? (2008).
4 See CORTESE, supra note 2, at 35-36.
5 Under the tradition of the Church, the Petrine Primacy is based on the biblical
society to join political and religious power in the hands of the
ruler. Caesaropapismis the attempt to restore those practices of
pre-Christian societies, which imposed the secular authority
(Emperor) over religious authority (Pope).' Being even more
precise, it represents not only the intervention of the secular
ruler in the internal affairs of the Church, but also implies an
interference in religious matters that affects even truths of faith.9
The doctrine of Gelasian dualism comes as a reaction against the
abusive interference of the secular authority in Church affairs.
Although simple, and for a long time effective, this doctrine
was not immune from distortions. In the Carolingian age
(751987 A.D.), against the teachings of the dualist doctrine, which
proclaims a separation between the Church and the Empire,
there was a union of religious and temporal power."0 From
this perspective, the chief example of which is the Emperor
Charlemagne's regime, both powers should be united under one
main authority that unites humankind in this world in unum
corpus mysticum, whose head is Christ. It was his desire to
establish the so-called Respublica gentium christianarum, in
which there were no boundaries between Empire and Church.11
This theory proclaimed the constitution of one unique "body" in
which there was no space for diversity. Under this "unionist"12
model of Church and state relations, society was characterized by
only one faith, one Church, and one temporal author (...truncated)