IN THE SAME SENSE

A "Safe Way Forward" Project

The following group of quotations have been collected from various sources. Each sheds some light on the question of the rights, duties or obligations to resist legitimate ecclesiastical authority.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II.II, q.33, a4
It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter's subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Galatians 2:11, "Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Super Epistulas S. Pauli, Ad Galatas, 2:11-14, Lecture 3.83-84
The occasion of the rebuke was not slight, but just and useful, namely, the danger to the Gospel teaching... The manner of the rebuke was fitting, i.e., public and plain. Hence he says, I said to Cephas, i.e., to Peter, before them all, because that dissimulation posed a danger to all: them that sin, reprove before all (1 Tim 5:20).

St. Thomas Aquinas, Super Epistulas S. Pauli, Ad Galatas, 2:11-14, Lecture 3.77
Therefore from the foregoing we have an example: to prelates, indeed, an example of humility, that they not disdain corrections from those who are lower and subject to them; to subjects, an example of zeal and freedom, that they fear not to correct their prelates, particularly if their crime is public and verges upon danger to the multitude.

St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, II.29
Just as it is licit to resist a Pontiff who attacks the body, so also is it licit to resist him who attacks souls or destroys the civil order or above all, tries to destroy the Church. I say that it is licit to resist him by not doing what he orders and by impeding the execution of his will. It is not licit, however, to judge him, to punish him, or to depose him, for these are acts proper to a superior.

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