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The Catholic Doctrine of "The Common Good"
Catholic Social Teaching holds that God asks us to live life more abundantly but to live our lives so that everyone shares in this abundance, guided by concern for one another and by respect for the human dignity of all. Central to this teaching is the doctrine of the Common Good. The full and official statement about the Common Good is contained in a section of a Vatican document. Given below is a paraphrase of the main points:
- The principle of the common good rests upon the dignity, unity and equality of all people, and every aspect of social life must aim to achieve the common good in order to make everyone's life and relationships the fullest and best they can be.
- The common good is understood to be the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily.
- Because the common good belongs to everyone in common, and benefits everyone, it is possible to attain it, increase it and safeguard its effectiveness, now and in the future.
- A society dedicated to serving all human beings at every level is a society that has the common good - the good of all people and of the whole person - as its primary goal. We must live with others and for others.
- Every form of social life, at every level, - from the family to intermediate social groups, associations, enterprises of an economic nature, cities, regions, States, up to the community of peoples and nations - needs to concern itself with its own common good.
- Foremost of the demands of the common good are a commitment to peace, the organization and functioning of the State's governing powers, a sound system of justice, the protection of the environment, and the provision of essential services to all. These services include food, housing, work, education and access to culture, transportation, basic health care, freedom of communication and expression, and the protection of religious freedom.
- The common good calls upon all members of society to work together to attain and develop it. Everyone must aim to take greater responsibility, not shirk it.
- Everyone has the right to enjoy the conditions of social life that are brought about by the quest for the common good.
- The responsibility for attaining the common good, besides falling to individual persons, belongs also to the State, since the common good is the reason that the political authority exists. The State, in fact, must guarantee the coherency, unity and organization of the civil society in order that the common good may be attained. The individual person, the family or intermediate groups are not able to achieve their full development by themselves for living a truly human life. Hence the necessity of political institutions, the purpose of which is to make available to persons the necessary material, cultural, moral and spiritual goods. The goal of life in society is in fact the historically attainable common good.
- Our history - the personal and collective effort to elevate the human condition - begins and ends in Jesus: thanks to him, by means of him and in light of him every reality, including human society, can be brought to its Supreme Good, to its fulfilment. A purely historical and materialistic vision would end up transforming the common good into a simple socio-economic well-being, without any transcendental goal, that is, without its most intimate reason for existing.
Further Resources
For the benefit on anyone wishing to get a taste of public discussion about the doctrine of the Common Good there is a scholarly paper about of it by four theologians at Santa Clara University here, and there is a non-profit organization, Common Good, that claims to offer "Americans a new way to look at law and government". Wikipedia has a good discussion of the topic here.
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Brief Links
Plan Bay Area - Nine-county Plan for Transportation and Growth, link
When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 3 (Opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, October 11), link
When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 2 (Kristof, September 6), link
When Whites Just Don't Get It (Kristof, August 30), link
California League of Women Voters, http://lwvc.org/
Analyses of the six propositions on the California ballot by the California Catholic Conference of Bishops, link
Californians for Safe Neighborhoods and Schools, link
Finding Hope after Prison (East Bay Express, October 22), link
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CCOP's Social Justice Committee
The Social Justice and Outreach Committee is a committee of CCOP's Parish Council that meets in the "Cry Room" of St. Elizabeth Seton Church at 7:00 P.M. on the first Thursday of each month, September through June. It sponsors opportunities for volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity (East Bay) and MedShare in San Lorenzo.
Habitat for Humanity volunteers
The Social Justice Committee leads two charitable fund raising campaigns and recruits volunteers to help with them: Fair Trade Easter Sales and Concern America (selling goods made in Central and South America).
It organizes two walks: the Cross Walk during Lent and the CROP Hunger Walk.
The committee also coordinates the CRS Rice Bowl campaign to raise money for Catholic Relief Services. It also administers, handles correspondence, and keeps records for a funding program involving about 4% of CCOP's annual budget. For 2014 the program distributed about $75,000 to 84 organizations locally, in California, nationally and internationally.
Two campaigns for clothing and other items for the homeless are led by the committee. The main one for St. Mary's Interfaith Center in Stockton for which parishioners contribute many items every week and during Lent contribute specially requested items for the "Oasis of Hope". Smaller campaigns are held occasionally to benefit the Livermore Homeless Refuge.
The committee also organizes the Giving Tree campaign at Christmas time to buy gifts for poor families in the East Bay and get them delivered.
The committee has led a campaign opposing the death penalty, one for Catholics Confront Global Poverty, and one to urge CCOP parishioners to join the Catholic Legislative Network of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops. It has also supported the Detention Ministry work at Santa Rita Jail.
The committee also publishes an emailed social justice newsletter twice a month to about 1600 subscribers. The newsletter is archived here. A valuable list of Links to Social Justice resource websites has been produced in connection with the newsletter.
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Engaging Residents in Creating Great Communities near Public Transportation
Pleasanton and Dublin are already highly built up cities. Dublin has lots of completed housing near its BART stations and is rapidly adding more. Pleasanton has guidelines for Transit Oriented Development (TOD) already approved and building sites already zoned. What is needed is a way to stimulate discussion about how to create great communities within individual housing developments - communities where people talk to each other, get to know each other, eat meals together occasionally, and have a sense of sharing their lives and welfare with one another. This does not mean that hundreds of people become one big happy family. It does mean a free-flowing sociability where people readily talk with their neighbors and with those they encounter on their walks. They take an interest in each other's well-being.
You may be interested in an article on Local Planning from the public transportation advocacy organization TransForm.
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Upcoming Events
Friday, October 24, 4:00 P.M. through Sunday, October 26, 1:00 P.M.
"That All May Be Cherished", Interfaith Spirituality Retreat: An Experiment In Theory And Practice, Presenter Fr. Thomas P. Bonacci, CP,
San Damiano Retreat Center, Danville
Friday, October 24, 6:30 - 9:00 P.M.Ceasefire Night WalkStarting from At Thy Word Ministries Church 8915 International Blvd, Oakland, map
Friday, October 24, 7:00 P.M.Showing of the movie, INEQUALITY FOR ALLParish Hall, St. Charles Church 1315 Lomitas Ave., Livermore, trailer, more info.
Friday, October 24, 7:00 P.M.
Panel discussion, "Getting Out and Staying Out of Prison"
The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. (corner of 14th and Castro)
A panel discussion hosted by Micky Duxbury, Project Coordinator of Welcome Home Project, for the formerly incarcerated, their families and friends and the general public about transformed lives. Share dessert, music and community!
Wednesday, November 5, 5:30 - 7:30 P.M.
EBHO's 2014 Annual Membership Meeting and Celebration
Satellite Affordable Housing Associates' (SAHA) Satellite Central, 540 21st St., two blocks from the 19th Street BART Station in Oakland, info.
Thursday, November 6. 7:00 P.M.
Social Justice Committee meeting
"Cry Room", St. Elizabeth Seton Church
All are welcome
Friday, November 7, 6:30 - 9:00 P.M.
Ceasefire Night Walk
Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland, map.
Friday, November 14, 6:30 - 9:00 P.M.
Ceasefire Night Walk
First Mt Sinai, 1970 86th Avenue, Oakland, map.
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