Considering Caesar with Catholic Social Teaching

Angela MacMillan is the Research and Resource Development Assistant in the Office of Social Care and Community Outreach. She is also an alumna of the Lumen Gentium Forum, a formation program in Catholic social teaching for young professionals.

Sometimes God tells us exactly what we need to hear. It is very fitting that this year, shortly before the municipal elections, we hear these words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and give to God the things that are God’s.”

Often, this passage is considered from the perspective of what it means to be a good Catholic citizen. During elections, it reminds us to consider the capability of candidates to fulfill the responsibilities of a good government. Wisely, the Church provides us some guidance on what that looks like.

Catechism paragraphs 2235-2237 describe the general responsibilities of those with political authority and a more concrete list is given in Rerum Novarum paragraph 32. Summarized, they should act justly in the service of the common good and are obligated to respect the rights of everyone, especially the poor. The Church describes both the common good and what it means to respect the rights of all in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (CSDC), a document that summarizes the Church’s social teaching.

The CSDC outlines the common good in paragraphs 164-170. It is “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily” (164). All members of society are responsible for working toward the common good, but politicians play an important role. Governments exist to serve the common good in ways that smaller entities cannot and to reconcile competing interests among societal groups.

Larger entities assisting smaller entities to achieve the common good is subsidiarity, described in CSDC paragraphs 185-191. The Church sees society as a network of communities where the function of each small community has value. Larger communities are obligated to refrain from assuming responsibility over matters that smaller communities are capable of handling themselves. A basic example is roads, which serve the common good by allowing easy connection between people and places. The responsibility for building and maintaining public roads is beyond the capability of any individual resident or business that uses it, so it is proper for a higher authority to handle this task. However, it would not be appropriate for a higher authority to assume responsibility for building and maintaining driveways on private property.

Families are unique small communities, a fact even acknowledged by secular politicians in their many promises to improve life for families. The family precedes society. Thus, the Church has mandated that society, particularly public authorities, serve the family in the Charter of Rights of the Family. Familiaris Consortio states that it is proper of families to lead the defence of the rights of the family as part of their political role.

Municipal elections do not have the benefit of large campaigns like provincial and federal elections do. Their lack of publicity might tempt us to treat them as less important, but nothing could be further from the truth. No public authority, regardless of jurisdiction, is exempt from its duty to serve the common good and to subsidiarity. Neither should Caesar demand for himself the things that belong to God. It is up to us as citizens to make that clear with our votes.