This is in direct contradiction to what the Church has always taught! Even VII said, the Council "leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ."
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From LifeSiteNews
By Matthew McCusker
Errors are found throughout Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas in which he says society has 'autonomy' from religion and that the state has 'full autonomy' from the Catholic Church.
“Now, this authority, perfect in itself, and plainly meant to be unfettered, so long assailed by a philosophy that truckles to the State, the Church, has never ceased to claim for herself and openly to exercise. The Apostles themselves were the first to uphold it, when, being forbidden by the rulers of the synagogue to preach the Gospel, they courageously answered: ‘We must obey God rather than men.'”
— Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, “On the Christian Constitution of States”
(LifeSiteNews) — In his recent “encyclical letter” Magnifica Humanitas, Leo XIV publicly rejected the reign of Christ the King over states and nations.
In this document, he affirms that civil society possesses “autonomy” from religion, including in its “values” and “laws,” and that the state has “full autonomy” from the Catholic Church.
Errors regarding the relationship between Church and state, and the authority of Christ and His Church over the world He created, are to be found throughout Magnifica Humanitas.
In two previous articles, I have explored the main themes of the encyclical and explored the way it contradicts Catholic teaching on the authority of the Church.
In this third article, I will focus on the assertion of the “autonomy” of civil society from the Church, looking specifically at the treatment of this question in the section of Chapter 1 entitled “A church journeying through human history.”
The mission of the Catholic Church
Leo XIV opens the section with these words:
The Church’s vocation and duty to accompany humanity in the specifics of history leads her to recognize that earthly realities possess their own proper character and order.[1]
Leo’s treatment of this subject is opened with an inadequate explanation of the Church’s mission.
The First Vatican Council taught that:
The eternal Shepherd and Bishop of our souls determined to found a holy Church in order that He might extend the salutary work of redemption throughout all ages.[2]
This is the mission or “vocation” of the Catholic Church.
Theologian Rev. E. Sylvester Berry explained:
In order that divine Truth might be brought home to all men Jesus Christ established a Church, a teaching organization, to speak to the world in His name and with His own authority. To that Church He gave a very clear and unequivocal mission. It was to teach men whatsoever He had taught – nothing more, nothing less. On all men Christ placed the obligation of hearing His Church as they would hear Himself.[3]
Every single human being “must submit to the authority of His Church, be taught and ruled by it, and receive through it all the means of salvation. This is evident from the commission which Christ gave to His Apostles when He sent them forth to teach all nations.”[4]
It is the will of Jesus Christ that all mankind should be subject to His authority exercised through the hierarchy of His Church.
This authority is threefold:
- by His teaching power He infallibly teaches the entirety of Divine Revelation to every generation,
- by His sanctifying power He makes souls holy through His sacraments, and other sacred rites,
- by His governing power He directs souls toward eternal union with Himself through holy disciplines, laws, and commands.
I have discussed the nature of this authority in more detail in a previous article.
Here, it will be enough to note the difference between presenting the Church as the authoritative teacher, governor, and sanctifier of mankind and presenting the Church as a body that does nothing more than “accompany humanity,” or as Leo put it in an earlier paragraph of the text, “a Church that walks alongside humanity, recognizing the autonomy of earthly realities”.[5]
The Catholic Church does not merely “walk alongside humanity.” The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of which Jesus Christ is the Divine Head. It is His will that the entire human race be united in membership of this body and be subject to her jurisdiction.
The Church teaches and governs men in everything pertaining to eternal salvation. She has the right to issue commands, and her members have the obligation to receive her teachings and obey her laws.
The Church teaches with authority even the unbaptized, who are strictly obliged to receive baptism on hearing the preaching of the Church, according to the command of their Creator:
Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. (Mk 16: 15-16)
As Pope Leo XIII taught:
His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.[6]
Civil society has no autonomy from religion
In the next sentence of paragraph 20, Leo XIV writes:
The Second Vatican Council expressed this principle with particular precision in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, whose 60th anniversary we remembered and celebrated with gratitude on 7 December 2025: “If by the autonomy of earthly affairs is meant that created things and societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values … then the demand for autonomy is perfectly in order.”[7]
Paragraph number 36 of Gaudium et Spes, which Leo quotes, is specifically referring to autonomy from “religion” that, it states, is “required by modern man.” This text is typical of Gaudium et Spes, and of the documents of Vatican II in general. First, it asserts a false doctrine – in this case that human “societies” have “autonomy” from “religion.” Later, it introduces caveats and clarifications that seem to modify the original error to make it possible for it to be said that the original statement should be interpreted in an orthodox manner.
This was a deliberate strategy. Father Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., a heterodox theologian, revealed that a member of the Council’s doctrinal commission told him:
[W]e say it diplomatically, but after the council we will draw the implied conclusions.[8]
In Magnifica Humanitas, we see a clear example of drawing the “implied conclusions.” Leo doesn’t quote any of the hedging and caveats in Gaudium et Spes; he just quotes the core error.
It seems clear that Leo’s intention is to tell us that “societies” have “autonomy” from “religion” and enjoy “their own laws and values.” He even edits the quotation from Gaudium et Spes to make the false doctrine stand out more clearly. And then, as we shall see, he develops it further to assert that the state has “full autonomy” from the Church.
The assertion of mankind’s “autonomy” from religion is straightforward liberalism.
The essence of liberalism is the assertion of the independence of the individual human intellect and will from necessary conformity to any external reality. [9] Liberalism regards “freedom” from external restraint as the ultimate determiner of human flourishing. The more men are free to think and act as they will, the closer they are to the liberal ideal of human life.
The truth is otherwise.
Man is a dependent being, with ultimate dependence on the God who created him and who holds him in being at every moment of his existence. The human intellect was created to know truth, and our will was made so that it could choose to act in accordance with the truth it knows. The more we know the truth, and conform our intellects and wills to it, the closer we come to fulfilling our purpose. Our greatest happiness is found when our intellect sees God, and our will rests in Him for all eternity in the beatific vision of heaven.
Man’s dependence on God is the basis of religion, in the natural as well as the supernatural order. As philosopher Austin M. Woodbury, S.M., wrote: “religion is based upon the essential dependence of man upon God, from the understanding of which dependence proceed the various religious obligations.”[10]
These obligations include recognizing our dependence on God, offering Him worship, and obeying His Eternal Law that we find written on our hearts (Rm 2:15). This natural law must be observed, including the religious obligations it prescribes. (For a closer look at the natural law, see here.)
The assertion that human “societies” are autonomous from “religion” and “enjoy their own laws and values” is simply false, even in the natural order.
In Libertas, Pope Leo XIII taught that:
To refuse any bond of union between man and civil society, on the one hand, and God the Creator and consequently the supreme Law-giver, on the other, is plainly repugnant to the nature, not only of man, but of all created things.[11]
This is because “of necessity, all effects must in some proper way be connected with their cause.”[12] This is the connection which Leo XIV’s doctrine, were it true, would sever.
Human societies are bound to acknowledge God
In Immortale Dei, Pope Leo XIII wrote:
Nature and reason, which command every individual devoutly to worship God in holiness, because we belong to Him and must return to Him, since from Him we came, bind also the civil community by a like law.[13]
This is because:
[M]en living together in society are under the power of God no less than individuals are, and society, no less than individuals, owes gratitude to God who gave it being and maintains it and whose ever-bounteous goodness enriches it with countless blessings.[14]
What is true of natural religion is true also of the supernatural religion practiced by the Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIII continued:
[N]o one is allowed to be remiss in the service due to God, and since the chief duty of all men is to cling to religion in both its teaching and practice – not such religion as they may have a preference for, but the religion which God enjoins, and which certain and most clear marks show to be the only one true religion – it is a public crime to act as though there were no God.
So, too, is it a sin for the State not to have care for religion as a something beyond its scope, or as of no practical benefit, or out of many forms of religion to adopt that one that chimes in with the fancy; for we are bound absolutely to worship God in that way which He has shown to be His will.[15]
And there is only one religion that God has shown to be true, as the pope makes clear:
Now, it cannot be difficult to find out which is the true religion, if only it be sought with an earnest and unbiased mind; for proofs are abundant and striking. We have, for example, the fulfilment of prophecies, miracles in great numbers, the rapid spread of the faith in the midst of enemies and in face of overwhelming obstacles, the witness of the martyrs, and the like. From all these it is evident that the only true religion is the one established by Jesus Christ Himself, and which He committed to His Church to protect and to propagate.[16]
Therefore, Leo XIV errs gravely in suggesting that “societies,” and their “laws” and “values” can have “autonomy” from religion.
Civil society does not have ‘full autonomy’ from the Church
Leo XIV opens paragraph 21 as follows:
Recognizing that God upholds the freedom of men and women in the unfolding of history, the Second Vatican Council affirmed the distinction between the ecclesial community and the political community, emphasizing that each must operate with full autonomy.[17]
The Church and the state are indeed distinct societies, but it is false to assert that the state has “full autonomy” from the Church.
Of the proper distinction between these two societies, Pope Leo XIII taught:
Each in its kind is supreme, each has fixed limits within which it is contained, limits which are defined by the nature and special object of the province of each, so that there is, we may say, an orbit traced out, within which the action of each is brought into play by its own native right.[18]
As we have seen above, the Catholic Church works for the salvation and sanctification of mankind.
The state, on the other hand, seeks the temporal good of those over whom it exercises authority. This means it works for the fuller development of the physical, intellectual, and moral life of its subjects and seeks to provide peace and prosperity for all its people.[19]
These two spheres are distinct from each other, and neither Church nor state ought to usurp the role proper to the other. They are distinct societies and in a very real sense separate from each other.
On the other hand, the membership of each body overlaps. Every member of the Catholic Church is also the member of a state. Thus, it is possible to be simultaneously subject to both the Church and the state.
As membership of Church and state overlaps, it is also possible that there could be a clash between their respective commands. In Libertas, Pope Leo XIII notes:
We have more than once pointed out, (that) although the civil authority has not the same proximate end as the spiritual, nor proceeds on the same lines, nevertheless in the exercise of their separate powers they must occasionally meet. For their subjects are the same, and not infrequently they deal with the same objects, though in different ways.[20]
He continues:
Whenever this occurs, since a state of conflict is absurd and manifestly repugnant to the most wise ordinance of God, there must necessarily exist some order or mode of procedure to remove the occasions of difference and contention, and to secure harmony in all things. This harmony has not been inaptly compared to that which exists between the body and the soul for the well-being of both one and the other, the separation of which brings irremediable harm to the body, since it extinguishes its very life.[21]
In cases where the state commands something contrary to the law or teaching of the Church, it is the Church that must be obeyed. This is because the end of the Church – eternal happiness – is higher than the end of the state – temporal happiness.
Pope Leo XIII explains:
This society is made up of men, just as civil society is, and yet is supernatural and spiritual, on account of the end for which it was founded, and of the means by which it aims at attaining that end.
Hence, it is distinguished and differs from civil society, and, what is of highest moment, it is a society chartered as of right divine, perfect in its nature and in its title, to possess in itself and by itself, through the will and loving kindness of its Founder, all needful provision for its maintenance and action.
And just as the end at which the Church aims is by far the noblest of ends, so is its authority the most exalted of all authority, nor can it be looked upon as inferior to the civil power, or in any manner dependent upon it.[22]
He continues:
In very truth, Jesus Christ gave to His Apostles unrestrained authority in regard to things sacred, together with the genuine and most true power of making laws, as also with the twofold right of judging and of punishing, which flow from that power. “All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth: going therefore teach all nations … teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” And in another place: “If he will not hear them, tell the Church.” And again: “In readiness to revenge all disobedience.” And once more: “That … I may not deal more severely according to the power which the Lord hath given me, unto edification and not unto destruction.”[23]
It is necessary that the Church of Christ possess this unrestrained authority because:
[I]t is the Church, and not the State, that is to be man’s guide to heaven. It is to the Church that God has assigned the charge of seeing to, and legislating for, all that concerns religion; of teaching all nations; of spreading the Christian faith as widely as possible; in short, of administering freely and without hindrance, in accordance with her own judgment, all matters that fall within its competence.[24]
The state can never possess any authority over the Church as such, even though it has authority over her members in civil matters. The state has no right to interfere in the proper operations of the Church and may not hinder them in any way.
The Church, on the other hand, has supreme authority in all that pertains to man’s eternal salvation – which includes every precept of the moral law. Pope Leo XIII teaches:
Now, this authority, perfect in itself, and plainly meant to be unfettered, so long assailed by a philosophy that truckles to the State, the Church, has never ceased to claim for herself and openly to exercise. The Apostles themselves were the first to uphold it, when, being forbidden by the rulers of the synagogue to preach the Gospel, they courageously answered: “We must obey God rather than men.”[25]
This authority, the pope remarked, has been maintained by the “weighty arguments” of the “holy Fathers of the Church” and “the Roman Pontiffs have never shrunk from defending it with unbending constancy.”[26]
It has also been frequently acknowledged by rulers themselves:
Nay, more, princes and all invested with power to rule have themselves approved it, in theory alike and in practice. It cannot be called in question that in the making of treaties, in the transaction of business matters, in the sending and receiving ambassadors, and in the interchange of other kinds of official dealings they have been wont to treat with the Church as with a supreme and legitimate power.[27]
The teaching of Pope Leo XIII destroys the assertion by Leo XIV that the state has “full autonomy” from the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church is a “supreme and legitimate power” with authority that is “unfettered” and “unrestrained” in all matters that fall in her sphere. The civil authorities must submit to the ecclesiastical authorities on everything pertaining to her jurisdiction.
Christ is king over all states and nations
Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, through whom all things have been made. He is our Redeemer and our Lord. He rules over the Church, of which He is the Divine Head and Supreme High Priest, and He rules over the state, of which He is King and Supreme Ruler. All legitimate authority in both Church and state derives from Him.
Leo XIV, in asserting the autonomy of civil society from both religion and ecclesiastical authority, is denying the dependence that civil society has on God its Creator. He is ejecting Jesus Christ from political and civic life and limiting His Church to the role of a mere adviser without authority.
Leo openly admits that this is his intention. He tells us he is offering this explanation because “failing to do so would expose Social Doctrine to the risk of being perceived as an undue interference in ‘worldly’ matters or as an external code of ethics imposed from above.”[28]
He believes that the Church has no right to “interfere” in the “worldly” affairs of men or impose the moral law.
This may be true of the “Synodal Church” of which Leo is the head. But it certainly isn’t true of the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ.
This Church, infallible and indefectible, remains ever faithful to the mission entrusted to her — to teach the nations with authority and direct men to eternal life. Though she may be temporarily cast into shadow by the actions of evil men, she only awaits the moment prepared by Divine Providence when her voice will be clearly heard by all, proclaiming the Empire of Our Lord.
References
| ↑1 | Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, No. 20. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, 18 July 1870. |
| ↑3 | Rev E. Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise, (Mount St Mary’s Seminary, 1955), p. v. |
| ↑4 | Berry, The Church of Christ, p. 23. |
| ↑5, ↑28 | Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, No. 18. |
| ↑6 | Pope Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum, No. 3. |
| ↑7 | Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, No. 20. |
| ↑8 | For the source and context of Fr Schillebeeckx’s remark see here: https://dominicansavrille.us/little-catechism-of-the-second-vatican-council-part-two/. |
| ↑9 | “What naturalists or rationalists aim at in philosophy, that the supporters of liberalism, carrying out the principles laid down by naturalism, are attempting in the domain of morality and politics. The fundamental doctrine of rationalism is the supremacy of the human reason, which, refusing due submission to the divine and eternal reason, proclaims its own independence, and constitutes itself the supreme principle and source and judge of truth.” Pope Leo XIII, Libertas, No. 15. |
| ↑10 | Rev. A.M. Woodbury S.M., Apologetics, A30.B. |
| ↑11 | Pope Leo XIII, Libertas, No. 15. |
| ↑12 | Pope Leo XIII, Libertas, No. 15. |
| ↑13, ↑14 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 6. |
| ↑15 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 6 |
| ↑16 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 7. |
| ↑17 | Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, No. 21. |
| ↑18 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 13. |
| ↑19 | Rev E. Cahill S.J., The Framework of a Christian State (Dublin, 1932), p. xx. |
| ↑20, ↑21 | Pope Leo XIII, Libertas, No. 18. |
| ↑22 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 8-10. |
| ↑23 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 11. |
| ↑24 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 10. |
| ↑25, ↑26 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 12. |
| ↑27 | Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, No. 12. |
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