Human abuses and misapplications of the law does not negate the law itself.
“But the Catholic faith has done more than just lend some of its features to civil law; it has also broken new ground. It was Catholic conscience confronting the evils of New World colonialism that led vicariously to the development of the modern system of international law.
In 1511 a Dominican priest on the island of Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) launched a fiery volley against Spanish exploitation of the natives, which prompted King Ferdinand of Spain to convene a council of theologians and to draft legislation for the humane treatment of his new subjects. Though most of the new laws were poorly enforced in the faraway colonies, they did “set the stage for the more systematic and lasting work of some of the great theological jurists of the sixteenth century. Chief among these is Father Francisco de Vitoria (1486–1546), the Thomist scholar whose explication of just war theory essentially rejects a European “right” to conquer the inhabitants of the New World in the name of civilization or Christianity. The alleged abuse or neglect of life and property by Native Americans, Vitoria taught, was not in itself sufficient grounds for waging war on them or subjugating them. Native Americans were fully human and as such were entitled to rule themselves, no matter what a European power, even the papacy, said. Such teachings, which were inspired by the Catholic natural law tradition and the Catholic understanding of the unity of the human race, contributed much to the emergence of international law.”
“But perhaps the single most important contribution of Catholicism to Western law is the one that is so fundamental that it is the easiest to overlook: concern for the victim...”
And only 400 years too late. Rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor.
“It was Catholic conscience confronting the evils of New World colonialism that led vicariously to the development of the modern system of international law”
Oh Right. The American Bill of Rights, based on the English Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, English Common law and Dissenter precepts, is just a sidelight to...one guy no one ever heard?
I know, I know. I haven’t heard of him because I’m...gasp...a WASP!
I’m sure that all those silly Protestant Colonials had nothing to do with civilization in America, it was actually a secret program of El Papa!
Yup, time to let the Brown Eyes of Calabria take their rightful place over us. The Real Americans!
Jefferson and Madison were just pogues. Got it.