VIDEOCONFERENCE, CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY

OCTOBER 29^TH 2004

PAPER BY FATHER PAOLO SCARAFONI, L.C.

(RECTOR OF THE PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY REGINA APOSTOLORUM)

TITLE: THE ETHICAL STATE (ACCORDING TO HEGEL’S PHILOSOPHY)

"The State is the self-conscious ethical substance, the unification of the family principle with that of civil society" (Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Science § 535).

"The laws express the special provisions for objective freedom" (see §538).

"As a living mind, the state only is as an organized whole, differentiated into particular agencies, which, proceeding from the one notion (though not known as notion) of the reasonable will, continually produce it as their result. […] The constitution is the articulation or organisation of the state-power […].The constitution is existent justice - the actuality of liberty in the development of all its reasonable provisions, § 539).

These expressions used by Hegel summarise his philosophy on the State and on Justice. The state is the only institution fully expressing rationality and free will, through the drafting of laws and by exercising power. Individuals, families and religious communities are totally subordinated to the law and the power of the state. During the last century, the literal implementation of Hegel’s theories led to abuse by totalitarian Nazi and communist regimes, to concentration camps, to ethnic cleansing, genetic selection and the elimination of religion from all forms of public life.

Hegel was not the first to formulate the theory of state totalitarianism. These principles were already present in the Greek world, often conflicting with the primacy of the individual, the family and religious communities. In the Book of Exodus in the Bible, the God-fearing midwives and even the Pharaoh’s daughter did not obey the pharaoh’s order to kill all the Jewish baby boys and saved Moses’ life. In the first book of Chronicles, King David ordered a census of families and of the population to give orders and then severely punished by God with all his people.

The primacy of the individual, the family and the religious communities regards to the state becomes in turn the primacy of natural law over positive law, which when legislating must have the first as a reference point and guarantee the dignity and freedom of individuals, families and Churches.

The freedom of religion and of the Church is the last reference and a guarantee for all dignity and respect of human rights.

The totalitarian idea of the state also crops up in a subtle manner within the democratic system, through the unconditional affirmation of positive law. Parliaments approve by a majority the assassination of children, elderly people and the sick, genetic manipulation, the management of the human body, sexual life, and homosexual partnerships. A kind of explicit insistence in legislating against the traditional family, the inviolability of the individual and of human life, the Church’s freedom, hides an intention to establish total domination over humankind.

All super-national institutions, international financial and communications groups demand to exercise absolute power, managing to influence also local and national legislation, thereby achieving their aims.