Online Symposium: Araujo on the Rule of Law

Here is another contribution to our MOJ symposium on the jurisprudential legacy of John Paul II.  Fr. Robert Araujo (Gonzaga) writes:

For John Paul II, the rule of law is essential to the survival and welfare of the human race. The rule of law represented for him how faith and reason combine to develop those normative principles by which individuals, communities, and States flourish in a realm where the transcendent and objective moral order rather than human caprice directs our public and private actions.

Human history, especially in recent times, has been affected by monumental developments in international relations, national development, and scientific advances that have had major impacts on the human race. The rule of law has had a proper role in harnessing and directing these developments so that self-interest or whim has not threatened the dignity of the human person, the unity and solidarity of the human family, and the advancement of the common good. The rule of law, then, serves as a guarantor and “creative force” (as the Holy Father stated in the first year of his Pontificate) in this context. The rule of law offers stability to the members of the human family when they are buffeted by the storms of life that seem intent on embroiling one and all in tempest after tempest. The rule of law is an anchor, a rudder, and a sail. Without the rule of law, the vessel of life founders on the tough and unjust shoals of life.

As John Paul recognized, the rule of law is not ignorant of the tensions and conflicts that permeate human existence. If can, when based on the transcendent and objective moral order, provide the truth needed to stabilize and plot a correct course. Its objectivity is essential to providing for the suum cuique—to each his or her due that is fairly, equitably, and justly determined. The rule of law is built upon the sturdy edifice of faith and reason—of heart and mind. It provides the authentic foundation in which new problems that plague humanity can be met in a judicious and unprejudiced fashion. When all is said and done, the rule of law provides the means to overcome

Babel

and deal with the common demands of humankind. This requires putting aside the differences of personal favoritism and appealing to those “higher faculties” which enable and ennoble the human person to live in concert with fellow beings. Regardless of the particular dispute or the ongoing strife, this rule of law provides the way that comforts and consoles the fair-minded. It is that which enables the person and the community of which he or she is part to address judiciously division and to forge understanding.

It is the rule of law which enabled John Paul II to send forth his emissaries into a world frequented by division to search for common ground and to apply sound reason to address famine, disease, war, illiteracy, and misunderstanding. For the Holy Father, this was the essence of the genuine development of the human race. Through the appropriation of this process, the entire human family and each of its members can flourish, but without it, each person and the community faces peril. While the individual person is the beginning of human destiny and dignity, it is not the only goal. For, man’s social dimension needs to be respected, as the Holy Father noted on so many occasions, and, within a Christian context, the completeness of the person cannot be achieved until self-centeredness is rejected. By overcoming the temptation of exaggerated individualism, the rule of law leads to the natural complementarity of the self in the “authentic social perspective.”

For it to succeed, the rule of law cannot ignore the moral concerns and values that celebrate each and every person—no matter how small, how old, how young, or how alert. That which threatens and consumes the one can eventually menace and destroy all. This is why the rule of law must recognize subsidiarity and solidarity in a simultaneous fashion. God created diversity, and His creation must be celebrated; however, this multiplicity cannot be properly understood until it is commonly accepted that the individual relates to the larger tapestry of life. And the rule of law plays an essential role in recognition of this. That is why the rule of law must promote and protect the family as the basic unit of society: for this is the place in which the individual first meets the community; where the individual begins to enjoy individuality in a loving social context. When the family becomes oppressed, hope for the future and prosperity of the human race becomes doubtful.

The rule of law is compromised when society cares only for some but not all of its members; then, it loses its stability and moral authority. It is at this juncture when caprice and its allies, brute force and disrespect for conscience, take control. The result is barbarism. The antidote to this crisis for John Paul is Jesus Christ. It is the Christian sense of right and wrong that ultimately recognizes the truth of the human condition and the destiny of humanity’s members. Christ draws all; all are drawn to Christ. As John Paul noted, when Jesus was asked the question: “Who do people say that I am?”, only Peter got it right: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” It is through the Christ that the individual is celebrated in his or her inextricable bond with that and those that are beyond. It is Jesus who shows each person the way to God because he is simultaneously of that person and of God.

As the Holy Father said at the beginning of his Pontificate, “allow me to invite you to listen to the voice of Christ, to the message of the Gospel concerning man. It cannot but strengthen you in your desire to build a world peace through law.” And, to this, I say: Amen!

Rick