Good Government in the Church as a Right of the Faithful

Abstract

The history of the Church, its institutions and communities evinces many examples of governing practices that meet high standards of quality, leading to greater growth in the communion of its members with God and with each other, and to more profound evangelizing action. If these actions of good government in the Church, which are not infrequent over the two millennia of its existence, correspond to what Jesus Christ established, it may be concluded that, as a salvific good (and therefore, in the Church, a legal good), good government may also be considered as the object of a right of the faithful, the right of the faithful to good government.