LibGuides: "Catholic Social Thought": THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMON GOOD (2024)

FAQs

LibGuides: "Catholic Social Thought": THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMON GOOD? ›

“The principle of the common good, to which every aspect of social life must be related if it is to attain its fullest meaning, stems from the dignity, unity and equality of all people.”

Common Good

We must all consider the good of others, and the good of the whole human family, in organizing our society—economically, politically, and legally. Human Dignity can only be realized and protected through our relationship with society-at-large.

We have said that the State must not absorb the individual or the family; both should be allowed free and untrammelled action so far as is consistent with the common good and the interest of others.

Pope Francis declared, “in full respect for that freedom, civil society is called to help each person and social organization to take up its specific role and thus contribute to the common good” and it is “in the family, we find the basic values of love, fraternity and mutual respect, which translate into essential ...

After quoting the formulation, it says that the common good consists of “three essential elements”: first, respect for persons, which entails respect for “the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person,” privileging in particular freedom of conscience and religion; second, “social well-being and development ...

“The principle of the common good, to which every aspect of social life must be related if it is to attain its fullest meaning, stems from the dignity, unity and equality of all people.” Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gaudium et Spes, 26: AAS 58 (1966), 1046. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1905-1912.

In ordinary political discourse, the “common good” refers to those facilities—whether material, cultural or institutional—that the members of a community provide to all members in order to fulfill a relational obligation they all have to care for certain interests that they have in common.

The Catechism neatly sums all this up by naming three essential elements of the common good in our age (CCC 1906, emphasis original): respect for the person, the well-being and development of the “group” or social community of which the person is a member, and peace.

'Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already justified, but gather instead to seek the common good together. ' 'The common good...the sum total of social condition which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily. '

In Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract, composed in the mid-18th century, Rousseau argues that society can function only to the extent that individuals have interests in common, and that the end goal of any state is the realization of the common good.

What is the difference between solidarity and common good? ›

Solidarity means that I have an interest in your welfare as human person and that we should to work together to achieve the common good. Solidarity also implies a preferential treatment for the poor. Those with more should desire and act for the good of those with less.

The human person is both sacred and social. We realise our dignity and rights in relationship with others, in community. Human beings grow and achieve fulfilment in community. Human dignity can only be realized and protected in the context of relationships with the wider society.

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Paragraph # 1925. 1925 The common good consists of three essential elements: respect for and promotion of the fundamental rights of the person; prosperity, or the development of the spiritual and temporal goods of society; the peace and security of the group and of its members.

That common good is the whole network of social conditions which enable human individuals and groups to flourish and live a fully, genuinely human life, otherwise described as "integral human development". All are responsible for all, collectively, at the level of society or nation, not only as individuals.

ATICAN CITY (CNS) — Everyone must engage in politics, which is simply what it means to take part constructively in the life of a nation or society, Pope Francis said in a new book of interviews.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarized this tradition by describing the common good as "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily." The catechism notes that the common good involves three essential elements: ...

The Catholic Christian Church teaches that the nature of the good is the full actualization of any being's potential, or achievement of perfection. To be good is to be all that one can be. Evil is not some impersonal force that is outside human control; it is the result of an abuse of our free will.

St. Thomas wrote that “the supreme good, namely God, is the common good, since the good of all things depends on God.” is linked with the good shared with others in community, and the highest good common to the life of all is God's own self.

These seven principles—respect for the human person, promotion of the family, the individual's right to own property, the common good, subsidiarity, the dignity of work and workers, and pursuit of peace and care for the poor—summarize some of the essentials of Catholic social teaching from Leo XIII through Benedict XVI ...

Aquinas saw government as also helping to work for the "common good" that benefits all. The common good included such things as protecting life, preserving the state, and promoting the peace. Aristotle would have called this "the good life."