Word: stated
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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Father Murray is generally in favor of the U.S. version of church-state separation, established by the First Amendment and by the principle that government and church function in entirely separate spheres, one caring for the people's earthly wellbeing, the other endowed with the mission of guiding them toward salvation. This, argues Murray, is an ancient Christian principle, even if often broken by either church or state in less socially and juridically advanced times. Writes Murray: "In 800 A.D., Leo III had a right to crown Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans; but this was because...
...such matters of church and state are all part of a larger issue, as Murray sees it. That issue is the American public philosophy...
...meaning of 'parent' and of 'disrespect' is to know a primary principle of the natural law, that disrespect to parents is evil, intrinsically and antecedent to any human prohibition." As experience unfolds, more and more precepts are derived-the basis of marriage, property, the state, the nature of justice. As human relationships become increasingly complex, the factoring-out of natural law eludes the unaided reason of the ordinary men. Such questions as the legitimate use of force, economic justice, the duties of employer and employee become the province of what St. Thomas called sapientes (the wise...
...dependent on man for their guarantee. In jurisprudence, it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who defined law as "the prophecies of what the courts will do in fact and nothing more pretentious." Said Holmes: "The jurists who believe in natural law seem to me to be in that naive state of mind that accepts what has been familiar and accepted by them and their neighbors as something that must be accepted by all men everywhere...
...whether or not the Catholics have been the true custodians of the American consensus, as Murray would have it, there is no denying that a new era has begun for Catholics in America, a country that in itself represents a new era in the history of church and state...