The event necessitating the writing of Tract Two was that “The Legislature has lately taken upon itself to remodel the dioceses of Ireland;” At first thought, this hardly seems like a topic relevant to us today; but, Father Newman was writing to challenge the government for infringing upon the rights of the Church to be the Church. Newman recognized what all champions of freedom have understood, that governments have a strong tendency to begin pushing aside all competing institutions of authority, in order to make more and more space for their own insatiable hunger to control the lives of people in every arena of life.
Whatever the sphere, be it family life, moral decision making, education, public and private assembly of people, all governments have a tendency to be viciously jealous of any other body to guide and direct the lives of people. In the most extreme cases, governments even become unwilling to even let individuals make decisions concerning the direction of their lives.
The Church, as the prophetic witness of God, must guard against and warn of intolerable incursions by the government into public and private spheres, in which the government has no right to interfere. In the West, Judeo/Christian mores have led the people of our culture to construct means for checking this tendency in governments. The Magna Carta limited the authority of the throne of England. And the Declaration of Independence confined government to a still smaller role.
When a government begins to intrude into spheres where it has no business being, there is a tendency for that government to begin thinking of itself as the conveyor and creator of rights, rather than the guardian of unchallengeable rights given to us by the God of all creation.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote these words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”
Padre Newman was right to raise a strong objection to what he saw as an intrusive encroachment upon the rights of the Church. We today need to be just as vigilant. The government has ruled against private property, extending imminent domain beyond its constitutional intent. Senate Democrats would like to muzzle the voice of dissent through the so called Fairness Doctrine. In some states, churches have been penalized for not conducting their business according secular sentiments and the freedom of peaceful assembly has been challenge by gay-rights activists, seeking to take control of groups like Boy Scouts of America. Freedom can continue only in a context where competing domains and spheres of influence and authority are allowed to stand in tension and/or complementation to each other. In our desire or the governments desires to bring all spheres into uniformity, the freedom and integrity of all is compromised and eventually lost.
Father Newman writes, “When the Nation interferes with the rights and possessions of the Church, it can with even less grace complain of the Church interfering with the Nation.” A free society can only survive in the context of a carefully limited government with carefully defined roles to play. Constitutional law is the only guarantee of such an arrangement; but, all citizens, civic and private interests groups, families and communities, and especially the Church must act as guardians of the freedom that flourishes only insofar as governments are maintained in their divinely appointed bounds.
Whatever the sphere, be it family life, moral decision making, education, public and private assembly of people, all governments have a tendency to be viciously jealous of any other body to guide and direct the lives of people. In the most extreme cases, governments even become unwilling to even let individuals make decisions concerning the direction of their lives.
The Church, as the prophetic witness of God, must guard against and warn of intolerable incursions by the government into public and private spheres, in which the government has no right to interfere. In the West, Judeo/Christian mores have led the people of our culture to construct means for checking this tendency in governments. The Magna Carta limited the authority of the throne of England. And the Declaration of Independence confined government to a still smaller role.
When a government begins to intrude into spheres where it has no business being, there is a tendency for that government to begin thinking of itself as the conveyor and creator of rights, rather than the guardian of unchallengeable rights given to us by the God of all creation.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote these words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”
Padre Newman was right to raise a strong objection to what he saw as an intrusive encroachment upon the rights of the Church. We today need to be just as vigilant. The government has ruled against private property, extending imminent domain beyond its constitutional intent. Senate Democrats would like to muzzle the voice of dissent through the so called Fairness Doctrine. In some states, churches have been penalized for not conducting their business according secular sentiments and the freedom of peaceful assembly has been challenge by gay-rights activists, seeking to take control of groups like Boy Scouts of America. Freedom can continue only in a context where competing domains and spheres of influence and authority are allowed to stand in tension and/or complementation to each other. In our desire or the governments desires to bring all spheres into uniformity, the freedom and integrity of all is compromised and eventually lost.
Father Newman writes, “When the Nation interferes with the rights and possessions of the Church, it can with even less grace complain of the Church interfering with the Nation.” A free society can only survive in the context of a carefully limited government with carefully defined roles to play. Constitutional law is the only guarantee of such an arrangement; but, all citizens, civic and private interests groups, families and communities, and especially the Church must act as guardians of the freedom that flourishes only insofar as governments are maintained in their divinely appointed bounds.
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