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MEANING AND PRIMARY IMPLICATIONS
- 164.
- “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.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 417-421.
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 272-273.
- Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 46: AAS 63 (1971), 433-435.
- “The common good does not consist in the simple sum of the particular goods of each subject of a social entity. Belonging to everyone and to each person, it is and remains ‘common,’ because it is indivisible and because only together is it possible to attain it, increase it and safeguard its effectiveness, with regard also to the future.”
- 165.
- “A society that wishes and intends to remain at the service of the human being 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. The human person cannot find fulfillment in himself, that is, apart from the fact that he exists ‘with’ others and ‘for’ others.”
RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERYONE FOR THE COMMON GOOD
- 166.
- “The demands of the common good are dependent on the social conditions of each historical period and are strictly connected to respect for and the integral promotion of the person and his fundamental rights.”
- 167.
- “The common good therefore involves all members of society, no one is exempt from cooperating, according to each one’s possibilities, in attaining it and developing it.”
- John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 417.
- Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 46: AAS 63 (1971), 433-435.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1913.
- Saint Thomas Aquinas places “knowledge of the truth about God” and “life in society” at the highest and most specific level of man's “inclinationes naturales” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 94, a. 2: Ed. Leon. 7, 170: “Secundum igitur ordinem inclinationum naturalium est ordo praeceptorum legis naturae ... Tertio modo inest homini inclinatio ad bonum secundum naturam rationis, quae est sibi propria; sicut homo habet naturalem inclinationem ad hoc quod veritatem cognoscat de Deo, et ad hoc quod in societate vivat”).
- “Everyone also has the right to enjoy the conditions of social life that are brought about by the quest for the common good.”
TASKS OF THE POLITICAL COMMUNITY
- 168.
- “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.”
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1910.
- Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 74: AAS 58 (1966), 1095-1097.
- John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, 17: AAS 71 (1979), 295-300.
- Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 133-135.
- Pius XII, Radio Message for the fiftieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum: AAS 33 (1941), 200.
- 169.
- “To ensure the common good, the government of each country has the specific duty to harmonize the different sectoral interests with the requirements of justice.”
- 170.
- “The common good of society is not an end in itself; it has value only in reference to attaining the ultimate ends of the person and the universal common good of the whole of creation.”
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