Theocratic government

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Saudi Arabia is a highly religious state…oppressively so… but it’s still ruled by a King rather than by clerics, so I don’t think it meets the technical definition of a theocracy.
 
I wonder how those couple of US Priests who became Congressmen got away with it.
 
DignumEtJustum said:
I wonder how those couple of US Priests who became Congressmen got away with it.
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They served in the US government when it was permissible. In 1980, the Pope changed his mind and the two priests in Congress did not run again.
 
redbaron162 said:
Agreed. For some reasons some people who are ignorant of history think that if the Catholic Church could they would establish a Theocratic government. However this goes against church teaching. For example a priest is prohibited by canon law for running for a political office and for very good reasons. Keep in mind that when the Church’s secular power was at its height and it probably could have formed a theocratic government…it didn’t. The Church recognizes that civil governments have different mission than the Church and should not be the same entity. (Though our civil governments really need to be taking a closer look at the Church on how to run something)

The only Christian Theocratic governments I am aware of are Protestant (Ex. Calvinist Genoia) or technically England (Because in Anglicanism the King is the head of the Church)
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Andorra is a partial theocracy (on paper, not in practice) because one of its princes is always the Bishop of Urgell.

In pratice, it’s parliamentary democracy.

You do not want a theocracy. Most bishops may be good men, but I will also bet that while they’re skilled at politics within their dioceses, they would be absolutely incompetent with civil governance.

What we can have, is a Catholic constitutional monarchy, with a constitution with at least some ties to canon law (thereby harmonizing civil and canonical aspect of such things as, for example, marriage).
 
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abucs said:
In saying that though I think a lot of the emerging countries borrowed from the canon law for their domestic law, both in the principles and in the processes which was one reason Europe became so successful.
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Actually, they didn’t. Canon Law has had limited impact on either Civil Law or Common Law. The one major impact that does come to mind is the concept of fictitious persons as legal entities, which arose in the Church as a solution to monastics not being able to own property, not even their own monastery, because of their vow of poverty. Aside from blasphemy laws and a few laws pertaining to vice or marriage, Christian principles had little to do with the evolution of either system of law.

Edit: … and laws pertaining to the Jews and other non-believers.
 
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Understandable as they were both Democrats. Perhaps Independents would have been suitable as I can imagine had it gone on, perhaps some clerics could have ran against them as Republicans!
 
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Perhaps Independents would have been suitable as I can imagine had it gone on, perhaps some clerics could have ran against them as Republicans!
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Zynxensar said:
How will a Theocratic Catholic government fare in the world (excluding Vatican City)?
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Spain under Franco was close to being theocratic Catholic. I don’t think that public celebrations of other religions were permitted in that country during his time serving as caudillo.

That was my impression at least, when Franco was still alive. I read Goebbels diary written during WWII, and the German propagandist was very frustrated dealing with Franco and specifically opined that Spain was being actually ruled by Mrs. Franco’s confessor priest
 
Well I think the idea that the law had to be consistent and internally coherent was something that was developed in canon law. As far as I am aware this idea was taken up when nation states started delivering their own law codes, following the process of canon law which was the existent body of law to copy from. This allowed for there to develop certain principles in law rather than continual ad hoc rulings based on the case of the times. In thinking of the law like this. it strengthened the idea of what people could expect of the law and thus developed the idea of rights under the law which is what our law systems are based on today.
 
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Augustinian said:
That was my impression at least, when Franco was still alive. I read Goebbels diary written during WWII, and the German propagandist was very frustrated dealing with Franco and specifically opined that Spain was being actually ruled by Mrs. Franco’s confessor priest
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It might also be a sign of the National Socialists hatred towards Christianity.
 
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