Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/490



484 CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.

people, We should all the more keep Our hold upon the upper classes, because association with them is proper and necessary, as We shall explain later on, for the happy- issue of the work in which We are engaged.

Let there be no question of fostering under this name of Christian Democracy any intention of diminishing the spirit of obedience, or of withdrawing people from their lawful rulers. Both the natural and the Christian law command us to revere those who, in their various grades are above us in the State, and to submit ourselves to their just commands. It is quite in keeping with our dignity as men and Christians to obey, not only exteriorly but from the heart, as the Apostle expresses it, for con- science, sake, when he commands us to keep our soul sub- ject to the higher powers. It is abhorrent to the profes- sion of a Christian for any one to be unwilling to be sub- ject and obedient to those who rule in the Church, and first of all to the bishops whom (without prejudice to the universal power of the Roman Pontiff) the Holy Ghost has placed to rule the Church of God which Christ has purchased by His blood} He who thinks or acts otherwise is guilty of ignoring the grave precept of the Apostle who bids us to obey our rulers and to be subject to them, for they watch, having to give an account of our souls. Let the faithful everywhere implant these principles deep in their souls, and put them in practice in their daily life, and let the ministers of the Gospel meditate them profoundly, and incessantly labor not merely by exhorta- tion but especially by example to make them enter into the souls of others.

We have recalled these matters which on other oc- casions We have made the subject of Our instructions, in the hope that all dissension about the name of Christian, Democracy will cease and that all suspicion of any danger coming from what the name signifies will be put at rest. And with reason do We hope so ; for neglecting the opinions

Â» Acts XX. 28.