On Conforming the Civil Order to the Natural Law

I like where this author's heart lies, but there are a few points with which I'd have a problem. Let's take them one at a time. I've inserted my commentary beneath each point.

From Laodicea

1. Catholicism alone shall be recognised as the true religion and putative laws solemnly condemned by spiritual power shall be ipso facto suspended and putative laws solemnly condemned by the highest authority in the Church ipso facto declared null and void. Citizenship shall be dependent upon baptism and the rights of citizenship upon communion with the Roman Pontiff.

I have no problem up to the first full stop. However, if one limits citizenship to the baptised and the rights of citizenship to Catholics only, the State is guaranteed to have a body within it dedicated to its overthrow, unless the entirety of its residents are Catholic.-JW

2. False monotheistic cult by the non-baptised shall be tolerated in private insofar as it does not in the abstract conflict with the natural law and in public insofar as it does not conflict with the common good.

I totally agree. This was the practice in Spain for all non-Catholic religions under Franco, or was until the modernists in the Vatican 'pressured' him to change it after the Council.-JW

3. All Sundays and holy days of obligation shall be public holidays and commercial activity forbidden. The sale of meat on days of abstinence shall be forbidden.

A lot depends on the definition of 'commercial activity'. The Church has always approved of restaurants and inns being open on Sunday and Holy Days. Is the sale of needed medication 'commercial activity'? The Church has never considered the unbaptised to be bound by Her discipline, which the law of abstinence is, so this would be a harm to Catholic restaurant owners. And how about the housewife who needs a joint for the dinner on the Sunday after an Ember Saturday? She can't buy it on Sunday.-JW

4. The civil courts shall have no direct jurisdiction over minors who are subject to the jurisdiction of their families unless those families forfeit that jurisdiction through actions intrinsically incompatible with the good of the child.

This one sounds solid, as long as it's limited to the civil courts under the limitation mentioned.-JW

5. No person shall be deprived of his life by public or private action from conception until natural death unless pursuant to a sentence of death pronounced after a criminal trial upon the verdict of a jury of his peers for crime which threatens the maintenance of the rule of law. All other homicide shall be punished by law under the severest penalties.

Only one quibble. What about countries outside the common law Anglosphere that don't use a jury of one's peers in a trial?-JW

6. No true marriage may be dissolved by any human power. The civil power has no jurisdiction over the marriage bond which is exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the spiritual power. Unnatural unions shall be punishable by criminal law.

Absolute agreement, if by 'true marriage' the author intends sacramental marriages as recognised by the Church. Unbaptised people cannot enter into a sacramental marriage, so those 'marriages' can be dissolved.-JW

7. The lending of money at interest to individuals with unlimited recourse shall be punishable by criminal law. Only the income and not the assets of the citizenry may be taxed. Inheritance may not be taxed.

If by this, the author means that the State shall legislate the Church's teaching on usury as laid out in Vix Pervenit, the Bull of His Holiness Pope Benedict XIV, I am in absolute agreement.-JW

8. The propagation of false accounts of Christian doctrine (as identified by the spiritual power) shall be forbidden and punishable by law. The testimony of persons refusing to take oaths in the name of God shall not be heard. The propagation of atheism or polytheism shall be forbidden and punishable by law.

I'm in basic agreement here, tho' I'm not sure why the author separates 'false accounts of Christian doctrine' and 'atheism or polytheism' and doesn't include non-Christian monotheistic religions as well.-JW

9. All forms of pornography shall be forbidden and punishable by law.

Absolutely in agreement here, as long as it is the Church which decide what is pornographic.-JW

10. Commercial advertisements outside of commercial premises in which the goods advertised are sold shall be forbidden and punishable by law.

On this point I am totally at a loss! What!? Why!? Since the first shopkeeper, through the High Middle Ages of Faith, into modern times, commercial premises have always advertised outside their shops. When many people could not read, it was done by symbols. A branch of a grapevine outside a wine shop, a signboard with knives outside a cutler's, etc. I'm not sure what or why this has to do with conforming the civil order to the natural law, as I've read nothing in the philosophers, Fathers of the Church, Scholastics, or moral theologians that deal with advertising.-JW