Justice & Law Quote by Angelo Scola

Deference, here, is conditional. Angelo Scola isnt offering a blank check to the state; hes setting terms. Civil authority deserves respect only when it recognizes its power as borrowed, not self-generated, and when it governs with an "objective" yardstick that sits outside politics: the law of God. That pairing of humility and objectivity is the tell. Its a theological critique of modern sovereignty, especially the liberal habit of treating legitimacy as whatever the ballot box or constitution currently authorizes.

The intent is twofold: to defend cooperation with democratic institutions while reserving a right to dissent. Scola frames obedience as morally intelligible only if the state admits limits. The subtext is aimed at secular autonomy, the idea that government can define rights, human nature, and the good life without answering to any metaphysical account. By calling divine law "objective", he subtly casts secular moral reasoning as subjective, negotiable, or trend-driven; religion becomes the stable reference point in a culture he fears is governed by appetite and ideology.

Context matters: Scola is a major Catholic figure shaped by post-Vatican II debates, John Paul II-era resistance to both totalitarianism and permissive consumer democracies, and European fights over abortion, euthanasia, marriage, and education. The line echoes a Catholic social teaching tradition: affirm the dignity of politics, deny its ultimacy. Its a polite sentence with sharp implications: when the state forgets where power comes from, Christians dont just disagree; they withdraw deference and reassert a higher allegiance.