THE RELATION OF THE CHRISTIAN STATE TO THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH ACCORDING TO THE
PONTIFICALE ROMANUM
In our own time, when questions have arisen about the necessity
of the profession of the Catholic faith on the part of a state or civil
society composed of Catholics, it is highly interesting and enlight­
ening to turn to one of the Church’s official liturgical books for
information on this subject. The Pontificale Romanum, in its sec­
tion De benedictione et coronatione regis, contains pertinent and
important teaching on this matter. It shows, in the last analysis,
that the Church expects the Catholic sovereign of a Catholic nation
to profess and to protect the Catholic faith in his capacity as the
head of the state.
The ceremony for the benediction and the coronation of a king
is one of the sacramentals of the Church. Thus, although it does not
confer sanctifying grace ex opere operato, nevertheless, by reason
of the Church’s prayers it is definitely an apt means for the obtain­
ing of that gift and of the graces necessary for his state in life by
the one who receives it. Furthermore, the instructions and the
prayers incorporated into this ceremony offer us an unrivalled in­
sight into the Church’s high and accurate concept of civil authority,
its prerogatives and its duties.
In the Pontificale Romanum the section on the benediction and
the consecration of kings comes immediately after that which deals
with the benediction and the consecration of nuns. The Church,
properly enough, chooses to deal first with those whose lives are
consecrated immediately and directly to spiritual ends. The ceremonies for rulers and for soldiers come at the end of the first part
of the Pontificale, the one concerned with the benediction or consecration of persons.
The rite for the benediction and the coronation of a king begins
in much the same way as do the ceremonies of Holy Orders. A
prelate, in this case the first in rank among the bishops of the ter­
ritory, addresses the Metropolitan with the announcement that
Holy Mother Church asks that he (the Metropolitan) raise this
noble soldier to the royal dignity. The Metropolitan then inquires
if those who seek this elevation know that the king-elect is worthy
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and useful for this dignity. The Bishop’s reply is “Et novimus, et
credimus eum esse dignum, et utilem Ecclesiae Dei ; et ad regimen
hujus regni.”
The Catholic Church is God’s kingdom on earth. It is the one
society within which men are to find the fellowship of Christ. It
is the one assembly ordered to and requisite for the attainment of
that supernatural eternal life which Our Lord died to procure for
the children of men. Thus it would be false to its own divine com­
mission if it were to overlook the attitude and the influence of a
temporal ruler of a Catholic state. A man would not be beneficial to
the people of that state were he to be other than “useful" to the
Church of God. The welfare (even the temporal well-being) of
the people of that state is de jacto inseparable from the welfare of
the Church within it.
As in the administration of the sacrament of Holy Orders,
the preliminary interrogations are followed in this ceremony of
; the coronation of a king by an instruction given to the candidate
by the presiding prelate. In the course of this instruction the
..Metropolitan assures the prince that all the power by which
/kings rule and legislators judge righteously is from the Lord
God, and that he himself must one day render an account to God
of the people committed to his care. The prince is told that it is
his duty to live a morally good life, to worship the Lord his God
with his whole mind and with a pure heart, to retain the Christian
faith and the Catholic religion inviolate to the end, and to defend
it with all his strength against all of those opposed to it.
The instruction goes on to say that it is the king’s business
' “to show reverence to the prelates of the Church and to the
other priests,” and in no way to infringe upon the liberty of the
Church. Then it declares that the ruler is obliged in conscience
to defend widows and orphans, and all the poor and the weak
from oppression, and that he is bound to be kind, gentle, and
affable to all of those who approach him. He is told that he must
rule, not for his own profit, but for the good of the entire popu­
lace, and that he is to expect his reward, not in this world, but in
the next.
Immediately after this instruction is finished, the ceremony
‘ calls for the candidate to profess “before God and His angels”
that, to the best of his capacity and knowledge, he will keep and
observe law, justice, and peace for the Church of God and the

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people subject to him. He promises that he will show proper
and legitimate honor to the prelates of God's Churches and that
he will respect all that has been granted and conceded by other
rulers to the Churches. He furthermore pledges himself to respect
the abbots, the nobles, and the populace of his kingdom.
In the prayer which follows after the candidate’s profession,
the Metropolitan and the other Bishops present beg God that
the new king “may happily win the triumph of desirable victory
over the enemies of the cross of Christ and that he may put the
terror of his power upon them.” In the prayer at the anointing
of the king’s right arm, the Metropolitan prays that the newly
anointed may be “strong, just, faithful, provident, an untiring
ruler of this kingdom and of the Lord’s people, and a defender
of the Lord’s holy Church and of the Christian faith.”
When the royal sword is conferred upon the newly anointed,
the Metropolitan begs God to make this ruler one who will fight
for and defend the Church of God and its members, and one who
will oppose the enemies of the Christian name. And, in the actual
ceremony of coronation, the Pontiff prays that “as we are known
to be the pastors and the rulers of souls in interioribus, you (the
newly crowned ruler) may be in exterioribus a true worshipper
of God and a vigorous defender of God’s Church against all who
attack it.” When the king is led to his throne he is reminded that
his position in the cathedral, between the place of the clerics and
that assigned to the people, means that Our Lord, the mediator
of God and of men, has made him a mediator of the clergy and
the people.
In one of the prayers of the Mass, the celebrant asks God
that the people subject to the newly crowned monarch may keep
to the truth. In the postcommunion prayer of this Mass, the
Church begs God that the new ruler may be protected against all
evils, so that he may enjoy the tranquillity of ecclesiastical peace
and, in the next life, obtain his eternal reward.
The important thing about this ceremony is that the king is
represented as an actual ruler, rather than as a mere figurehead.
He is actually charged with the duty of governing his people.
And, it is precisely in his capacity as a ruler, exercising all the
various functions which constitute sovereign jurisdiction, that the
Church expects him to profess the Catholic faith and the Catholic

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217

religion, to defend the Church, and to assist in preserving good
relations between the clergy and the people.
It is to be noted that the king is considered precisely as a ruler
of a Catholic community. In the preliminary instruction, the
Metropolitan informs the new ruler that he is to assume “regendi
fideles populos tibi commissos curam.” It is obvious that a
government could not be expected to function in the manner
envisaged in the ceremony if the civil society over which it pre­
sided were other than one composed of members of the true Church
of God.
The essential point is, however, that under the circumstances
to which the ceremony of the Pontificale Romanum looks, when
the people and the rulers are members of the Catholic Church,
the Church considers it the duty and the privilege of the govern­
ment to act precisely as the government of a Catholic state, to
protect and to foster the true faith, and to be of assistance in the
work of the Church itself. The official prayer of the Church cer­
tainly gives no indication that a state composed of Catholics
would be doing its duty merely in giving the Church the same
liberties it would accord to some spurious religion.
Furthermore, we must realize that the Pontificale Romanum, in
. describing this sacramental, has in mind what authors dealing
with the question of Church and state call the thesis rather than
the hypothesis. This, in the absolute sense, is what a state should
be with reference to the Church itself. Obviously the Church does
not mean to imply that hereditary monarchy, or, for that matter,
any other form of monarchy, is inseparable from the concept of a
truly Catholic state. It does, however, imply that a vigorous
defence and support of the Church on the part of the government
(whatever form that government may take) is involved in the
idea of a good civil society among Catholics.
Certainly there can be no doubt that, in any case, all men are
meant by God to profess the Catholic faith and to live within
the fellowship of the Catholic Church. To deny this paramount
fact would be to deny the universal applicability of the merits of
Jesus Christ Our Lord, or to question the universality of God’s
salvific will. The fact that some men are not favored with mem­
bership in the Church is objectively an evil. The responsibility
for making this membership available to all men rests squarely
upon the Catholics themselves.

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Since, then, Our Lord’s invitation to fellowship with Himself
within the Catholic Church is extended to all men, and since the
ceremony described in the Pontificale Romanum looks to a situa­
tion in which the citizenry of a given state is completely Catholic,
we may say that this ceremony and the teachings implied in it
have to do with the thesis itself. Apart from special considerations
which spring from ignorance of the true faith or a lack of mis­
sionary spirit on the part of Catholics within a given realm, the
good ruler of a properly organized state is looked upon as one
who governs justly, who seeks the benefit of the citizens rather
than his own profit from his conduct of the state, and, in the
final analysis, one who is realistic enough to foster and defend
the true faith and the true Church against the forces which would
seek to hinder or to destroy them.
It is interesting to note that the teaching of the Pontificale Ro­
manum on the relation of the Christian state to the Catholic
Church is exactly the same as that contained in the great papal
encyclicals which have dealt with this problem. Thus it must mani­
festly be counted among those truths to which the Holy Father re­
fers in his magnificent encyclical Humani generis, when he de­
clares that “generally what is expounded and inculcated in Ency­
clical letters already for other reasons appertains to Catholic doc­
trine.” It is a teaching clearly and conclusively presented by the
Church in its ordinary and universal magisterium. Consequently,
despite the fact that the Church has issued no solemn definition
on this point, Catholic writers and teachers can definitely not con­
sider themselves free to state explicitly or even to suggest that a
civil society composed of members of the true Church can act as
God wills that it should by withholding an explicit and specific
profession of the Catholic faith and by refusing an explicit and
specific recognition of the Catholic Church. The truth that the
state, like every other human society, is objectively obligated to
worship God according to the one religion He has established and
commanded is so obiviously a part of Catholic doctrine that no
theologian has any excuse to call it into question.
Joseph Clifford Fenton

The Catholic University of America
Washington, D. C.

Answers to Questions
■

THE SUPPLEMENTARY CONFESSOR
OF RELIGIOUS WOMEN

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Question: In speaking of the supplementary confessors of religious women the Code states that they are appointed by the Ordi­
nary so that the nuns can easily go to them in particular cases
without the need of approaching the Ordinary each time. (Can.
521, § 2). Now, does this mean that the initial step in going to
confession to these priests must come from the nuns themselves?
For example, would it be permissible for the regular confessor, if
he is unable to fulfill his weekly appointment for confession at a
convent, to ask one of these supplementary confessors to take
his place ?

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Answer: Undoubtedly, the Code supposes that the nun herself
requests the services of a supplementary confessor rather than that
he comes to hear her confession on his own initiative or at the
request of the ordinary confessor. Indeed, there is some doubt
whether the “particular case” mentioned in the Code has reference
to individual religious only or to the whole community; but
Schaefer asserts that by a broad interpretation of the Canon an
entire community can ask for the services of a supplementary confessor in the event of the absence or sickness of the ordinary con­
fessor (Schaefer, De Religiosis [Rome, 1940], 374). He suggests
. this as the best method when the ordinary confessor is absent, al. though he adds that sometimes the matter is arranged by the Ordinary in such wise that when the regular confessor is impeded, the
extraordinary confessor shall take his place. {Ibid., 372).
When the supplementary confessor comes for confessions on his
own initiative or at the request of the regular confessor, without
any expression of a request on the part of the nuns, his action
would seem to be venially illicit, but there would be no difficulty
about the validity of the confessions. In the words of Cappello :
“If the ordinary confessor, without the knowledge of the Bishop,
should go away for a week or two, and should substitute one of
the. supplementary confessors in his place, the confessions would be
valid, because this latter’s jurisdiction is not limited, but per se
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