A Catholic Must Disobey Laws Contrary to Natural Law
Featured /articles

Por: Julio Banacloche | Fuente: Catholic.net

“"Trying to alleviate the effects of an unjust law is a duty. A Catholic must disobey laws contrary to natural law," said Julio Banacloche, professor of Procedural Law at UCM at the Belagua College of the University of Navarra. Banacloche has analyzed the relationship between natural law and justice in a conference he has given to university students within the "experiences from faith" cycle.

"The need for a law to have been passed mostly by a parliament says nothing about the fairness of that rule." With statements like this, the professor of law has pointed out that the recognition of a natural law in the human being is the foundation of justice. If, on the other hand, the existence of a law beyond positive law is not believed, according to Banacloche, it must be assumed that the law is a consensus of parliaments and therefore "the validity, legitimacy and even justice of the laws of Germany can be accepted  Nazi or the Stalinist Soviet Union". 

For this reason, the rapporteur has stressed the importance of "a criterion superior to parliament" in determining the fairness of a rule and, in this regard, has indicated that "natural law protects against arbitrariness". For this reason, Banacloche has stated that "if a law goes against natural law, a Catholic jurist cannot recognize it as a true law, even if it is formally approved" and has expressed the need for Catholics to act so that these rules are not applied and that even disobey them if conscientious objection was not possible.

Prejudice
During the conference, the Professor of Procedural Law stated that one of the main arguments against natural law is to regard it as the imposition of a way of understanding the law influenced by the Catholic religion. However, Banacloche has insisted, citing Benedict XVI, that Catholics "have never considered that God gave us the rules that have to govern our coexistence" and stressed that natural law can be reached "for reason, without the need for Revelation", since its content is "nature and reason".