Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 376 – Part V.

YOUCAT Question n. 376 – Part V. What duties do citizens have toward the State?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Every citizen has the duty to cooperate loyally with the civil authorities and to contribute to the Common Good in truth, justice, freedom, and solidarity.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2244 a) Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer.   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) A Christian, too, should love his homeland, defend it in various ways in times of need, and gladly offer to serve civil institutions. He should exercise the right to vote and even run for office and not shirk the duty to pay just taxes. Nevertheless, within the State the individual citizen remains a free man with fundamental rights; he has the right to offer constructive criticism of the State and its organs. The State is there for the people, not the individual for the State.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2244 b) The Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired truth about God and man: Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny, as history shows  (Cf. CA 45; 46).

(The next question is: When must we refuse to obey the State?)