Preview: 25th Anniversary of St. Thomas More as Patron Saint of Politicians

Twenty-five years ago, Pope Saint John Paul II proclaimed Saint Thomas More the Patron Saint of Politicians and Statesmen, so we will remember this 2025 anniversary on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, October 27. I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Pope John Paul II acted quickly after he received the petition for this action, "begun by former President of Italy Francesco Cossiga and signed by leaders from around the world" according to The Center for Thomas More Studies. The “Petition for Sir Thomas More as Patron of Statesmen,” is dated September 25, 2000, and by the end of October that year, the Pope issued his Motu Proprio Apostolic Letter "Proclaiming Saint Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians".

The petition highlighted and connected several attributes of More's life: "as [a] humanist, apologist, judge, legislator, diplomat and statesman" because he personified "the idea that holiness is the fulness of humanity". It also emphasized the connections between More and the laity and between More's lay holiness and the Pope's own ideas about holiness among the laity:

Precisely among the laity, the growing appeal of this extraordinary man speaks to us of one whose presence becomes, with the passing of time, ever more vivid, more striking, and more permanently timely.

He shines forth as an example of that unity of life which Your Holiness has called a characteristic of lay holiness: "The laity's unity of life is enormously important: for, indeed, they must sanctify themselves in their ordinary professional and social life. In order to be able to respond to their calling, then, the laity should look upon the activity of daily life as an opportunity for union with God and the fulfillment of His will and for service of their fellow man." (Christifideles laici, n. 17). In Saint Thomas More, there was no sign of that split between faith and culture, between timeless principles and daily life, which the Second Vatican Council laments as "among of the gravest errors of our time" (Gaudium et spes, n. 43)

The petition also emphasized More's service to his country as judge and statesmen for higher purposes:

Politics was not, for him, a matter of personal advantage, but rather an often difficult form of service, for which he had prepared himself not only through the study of the history, laws and culture of his own country, but also and especially through the examination of human nature, its grandeur and weaknesses, and of the ever-imperfect conditions of social life. For him, politics was the overflow of a tremendous effort of comprehension. As a consequence, he was able to show the proper hierarchy of ends to be pursued by government, in the light of the primacy of Truth over power and Goodness over utility. He always acted from the perspective of final ends, those which the shifting sands of historical circumstance can never nullify. Hence the strength which sustained him in the face of martyrdom.

In the conclusion the petitioners presented More's life and death as a model for service and integrity:

the lesson of flight from success and easy compromises in the name of fidelity to irrevocable principles, upon which depend the dignity of man and the justice of civil society — a lesson truly inspiring for all who, on the threshold of the new Millennium, feel themselves called to expose and eradicate the snares laid by new and hidden tyrannies. 

Therefore, certain that we act for the good of future society and trusting that our petition will find a benevolent welcome with Your Holiness, we ask that Sir Thomas More, Saint and Martyr, faithful servant of the King, but God's first, be proclaimed "Patron of Statesmen."

In response, Pope Saint John Paul II issued his proclamation, recounting aspects of More's life and concurring throughout with much that the petitioners had argued--even echoing their citation of his Christifideles laici!

He concurred with the petitioners and even found more pertinent contemporary reasons for granting their request:

There are many reasons for proclaiming Thomas More Patron of statesmen and people in public life. Among these is the need felt by the world of politics and public administration for credible role models able to indicate the path of truth at a time in history when difficult challenges and crucial responsibilities are increasing. Today in fact strongly innovative economic forces are reshaping social structures; on the other hand, scientific achievements in the area of biotechnology underline the need to defend human life at all its different stages, while the promises of a new society — successfully presented to a bewildered public opinion — urgently demand clear political decisions in favour of the family, young people, the elderly and the marginalized.

In this context, it is helpful to turn to the example of Saint Thomas More, who distinguished himself by his constant fidelity to legitimate authority and institutions precisely in his intention to serve not power but the supreme ideal of justice. His life teaches us that government is above all an exercise of virtue. Unwavering in this rigorous moral stance, this English statesman placed his own public activity at the service of the person, especially if that person was weak or poor; he dealt with social controversies with a superb sense of fairness; he was vigorously committed to favouring and defending the family; he supported the all-round education of the young. His profound detachment from honours and wealth, his serene and joyful humility, his balanced knowledge of human nature and of the vanity of success, his certainty of judgement rooted in faith: these all gave him that confident inner strength that sustained him in adversity and in the face of death. His sanctity shone forth in his martyrdom, but it had been prepared by an entire life of work devoted to God and neighbour.

We're not the only ones remembering this anniversary: the Center for Thomas More Studies will launch an online video course on Friday ,October 31, “Thomas More: Leading Citizen,” for the 25th Anniversary of Thomas More as “Patron of Statesmen”. So check it out.

A question for us today might be: have many Catholic politicians and statesmen and -women responded to this patronage and conformed to St. Thomas More's model in the last 25 years?

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

Saint John Paul II, pray for us!

The picture at the top and this picture are of the bas-relief of Saint Thomas More in the Basilica of Saint Clothilde in the Seventh Arrondisement of Paris, taken in 2012.

A Fifteenth Anniversary: St. Thomas More as Patron of Politicians

Edited by Travis Curtright, Director of Humanities and Liberal Studies and Associate Professor of Humanities and Literature at Ave Maria University and research fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies at the University of Dallas, this forthcoming book celebrates an unusual and perhaps now controversial anniversary:

The year 2015 marks the fifteenth anniversary of Thomas More’s becoming Patron Saint of Statesmen and Politicians. Yet during these years no serious answer has been given by a community of scholars as to why More would be the choice of over 40,000 leaders from ninety-five countries. What were More’s guiding principles of leadership and in what ways might they remain applicable? This collection of essays addresses these questions by investigating More through his writings, his political actions, and in recent artistic depictions.

In the book:

Introduction: Why Patron of Statesmen (Travis Curtright)

Chapter 1: Thomas More on Liberty, Law, and Good Rule (Gerard Wegemer)

Chapter 2: Statesmanship, Tyranny, and Piety: Thomas More’s Response to Lucian’s The Tyrannicide (Carson Holloway)

Chapter 3: Utopia’s Images of the Statesman (James R. Stoner, Jr.)

Chapter 4: Passing Strange, Yet Wholly True: On the Political Tales of Plato’s Critias and More’s Hythlodaeus (Jeffrey S. Lehman)

Chapter 5: Thomas More’s Utopia and Catholic Social Doctrine (J. Brian Benestad)

Chapter 6: Faith, Reason, and Order: Thomas More and Natural Law (Samuel Gregg)

Chapter 7: Sir Thomas More and his Opposition to Henry VIII in 1533 (Travis Curtright)

Chapter 8: Thomas More: Patron Saint of Leading Citizens (Stephen W. Smith)

Chapter 9: What Bolt Got Right and What Mantel Got Wrong (Louis Karlin)

Chapter 10: The Place of Sir Thomas More in Political Philosophy: A Reflection on “A Man for All Seasons.” (James V. Schall, S. J.)

Appendix: Apostolic Letter, Issued Motu Proprio, Proclaiming Saint Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. (Pope John Paul II.)

Travis Curtright contributed an article to Crisis Magazine previewing his introduction, I presume, which I think reflects too much on Robert Bolt's heroic More:

As its fifteenth anniversary approaches in October, Pope John Paul II’s proclamation of More as Patron Saint of Statesmen remains widely ignored and often misunderstood. John Paul II’s understanding of More not only recapitulates Catholic social teaching; it also emphasizes many of the same key attributes that are highlighted in Robert Bolt’s famous play, A Man for all Seasons (1960).

Bolt’s More possesses an “adamantine sense of self” that derives from his “conscience.” This characterization of More comports with John Paul II’s longstanding account of conscience. As early as 1962, while auxiliary Bishop of Krakow, he wrote: “The conscience provides the basis for the definitive structure [of the self] and defines me as that unique and unrepeatable self or I.” Bolt’s distaste for Catholicism notwithstanding, he and the pope both stress the inseparability of selfhood and conscience.

Integrity emerges in those leaders who follow their conscience. The Vatican proclamation emphasizes More’s “unity of life,” his commitment to pursue sanctity through and within his legal and political work. Integrity in government leaders best serves the common good because, as Bolt’s More observes, “when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties … they lead their country by a short route to chaos.”

As John Paul II puts it, More’s “defense of the Church’s freedom from unwarranted interference by the State is at the same time a defense, in the primacy of conscience, of the individual’s freedom vis-à-vis political power.” The Church’s freedom, in other words, cannot be untethered from that of the individuals who uphold its teachings. More himself made this point in self-defense, invoking the Magna Carta Libertatum (1215)—and its doctrine that the Church shall be free—at his trial. So both More and John Paul II argue that no definition of the individual’s conscience can exclude God’s moral law or the Church that interprets and teaches it.

On this point, the pope’s treatment of More invokes the earlier encyclical Veritatis Splendor (1993). That document teaches that “human freedom and God’s law meet and are called to intersect” because “man’s free obedience to God’s law effectively implies that human reason and human will participate in God’s wisdom and providence.” Thus, the pope proposes conscience as the actualization of humanity’s highest faculties and the proper exercise of freedom as a participation in divine life, a point exemplified by More’s life and death.

Do John Paul II and Robert Bolt really paint a historically accurate image of More? Or are they merely making anachronistic impositions upon history?

This would be a fascinating study to read, due out next month (but very expensive!) This is a book for Inter Library Loan!