Is Civil Disobedience ever justified?

[burnside]

Why i ask is because of the problem raised recently for catholic organizations being obliged to provide contraception for their employees!!
I remember the Paisleyites in Northern Ireland suggesting this course of action many years ago when they weren’t getting what they wanted.However,i don’t remember them actually doing it.
There seem to be so many difficulties thrown up nowadays for practising catholics.I have heard of a remark made by someone
from a Scottish hospital that they would have thought twice about
taking on so many catholic doctors because both male and female were refusing to have anything to do with abortions.In addition,catholics are avoiding Gynaecology because of the hassle it can cause them.
I remember a workmate who didn’t believe in organized religion
saying that a catholic doctor should be obliged to prescribe
birth control pills as it was the law.However,the same guy called a certain tennis player a ******* because she got an abortion so
that her career would not be interrupted.
I’ve heard TV News Programmes sometimes coming up with news items which were of a sexual nature and wondered what i would do if i were in that job and suddenly presented with this kind of thing at the last minute.I’ve no doubt there are those in the
TV Company who would deliberately try to palm it on to someone
they considered to be a “prude”.I have never had to face this problem as i worked at a desk in a Bank and these difficulties only surfaced as i was approaching retirement.

 

[Vincent]

It’s addressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:"The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ ‘We must obey God rather than men’:
[INDENT]"When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of the natural law and the Law of the Gospel." [/INDENT]

 

[NightRider]

Ya might wanna check out this book by Henry David Thoreau: *Civil Disobedience. *

There have been many outstanding Catholics who have employed civil disobedience, at least in the US.

 

[NightRider]

Right on, Vincent! Excellent post!