Church-State Relations from a Catholic Perspective: General Considerations on Nicolas Sarkozy's New Concept of Laïcité Positive

Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, Feb 2017

By Fr. Evaldo Xavier Gomes, Published on 02/16/17

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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)


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Fr. Evaldo Xavier Gomes. Church-State Relations from a Catholic Perspective: General Considerations on Nicolas Sarkozy's New Concept of Laïcité Positive, Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, 2017, pp. 3, Volume 48, Issue 2,