Catholic Higher Education and the Common Good

Catholic Higher Education and the Common Good Merrimack CollegeBarbara E. Wall, Ph.D.May, 2013

Human Dignity • is rooted in a relationship that God bestows • is the starting point of the Church’s social doctrine • “Human dignity can be realized and protectedonly in community.”Economic Justice for All, 14.United States Catholic Bishops Conference

Human Nature • The Christian concept of human nature is rooted in Genesis 1:27. • God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. • Biblical tradition adds a distinctive emphasis to these classical ideas.

Saint Augustine • Augustine challenged the supremacy of the polis as the domain of final human fulfillment. Another domain – the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem –is the ultimate good of every person.

Thomas Aquinas • God’s own goodness … is the good of the whole universe.” • Theocentric definition of the human good had a radical effect. It desacralized what the classical sources made holy: the polis. • The commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself demands a commitment to the common good.

Jacques Maritain • The complementarity of the common good with the idea of human rights was explored from a Thomistic perspective by Maritain in the 1940s, as “Personalist Communitarianism.”

Jacques Maritain • “Let us note in passing that the common good is not only a system of advantages and utilities but also a rectitude of life, an end, good in itself or, as the Ancients expressed it, a bonumhonestum... The common good is something ethically good. The Person and the Common Good, p. 43.

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “Humans were created by God not for life in isolation but for the formation of social unity. The communitarian character of human existence means that the good of each person is bound up with the good of the community.”Gaudium et Spes, 35

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “Every day human interdependence grows more tightly drawn and spreads by degrees over the whole world. As a result the common good, that is, the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment, today takes on an increasingly universal complexion and consequently involves rights and duties with respect to the whole human race. Every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the entire human family.”Gaudium et Spes, 26

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “At the same time, however, there is a growing awareness of the exalted dignity proper to the human person, since he stands above all things, and his rights and duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one's own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom even in matters religious.”Gaudium et Spes, 26

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to the benefit of the human person if the disposition of affairs is to be subordinate to the personal realm and not contrariwise, as the Lord indicated when He said that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. This social order requires constant improvement. It must be founded on truth, built on justice and animated by love; in freedom it should grow every day toward a more humane balance. An improvement in attitudes and abundant changes in society will have to take place if these objectives are to be gained.”Gaudium et Spes, 26

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “God's Spirit, Who with a marvelous providence directs the unfolding of time and renews the face of the earth, is not absent from this development. The ferment of the Gospel too has aroused and continues to arouse in man's heart the irresistible requirements of his dignity.”Gaudium et Spes, 26

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “Profound and rapid changes make it more necessary that no one ignoring the trend of events or drugged by laziness, content himself with a merely individualistic morality. It grows increasingly true that the obligations of justice and love are fulfilled only if each person, contributing to the common good, according to his own abilities and the needs of others, also promotes and assists the public and private institutions dedicated to bettering the conditions of human life.”Gaudium et Spes, 30

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “Yet there are those who, while possessing grand and rather noble sentiments, nevertheless in reality live always as if they cared nothing for the needs of society. Many in various places even make light of social laws and precepts, and do not hesitate to resort to various frauds and deceptions in avoiding just taxes or other debts due to society. Others think little of certain norms of social life, for example those designed for the protection of health, or laws establishing speed limits; they do not even avert to the fact that by such indifference they imperil their own life and that of others.”Gaudium et Spes, 30

Catholic Social Teachingand the Common Good “Let everyone consider it his sacred obligation to esteem and observe social necessities as belonging to the primary duties of modern man. For the more unified the world becomes, the more plainly do the offices of men extend beyond particular groups and spread by degrees to the whole world. But this development cannot occur unless individual men and their associations cultivate in themselves the moral and social virtues, and promote them in society; thus, with the needed help of divine grace men who are truly new and artisans of a new humanity can be forthcoming.” Gaudium et Spes, 30

Catholic Social Teachingand the Environment “The Church recognizes that care of the environment is part of care for the common good – the environment is one of the “common goods” which are the shared responsibility of the human race. We have to reject some of the easy assumptions of an earlier stage of industrialization, such as that the human race, because God had given it dominion over the world, had an unlimited freedom to despoil the natural environment for its own purposes.”Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, 1996

Catholic Social Teachingand the Environment Our environmental “common goods” are not only available for careful use and enjoyment today, but are held in trust for the use and enjoyment of future generations. Public authorities must never treat them as having no intrinsic worth, nor commercial concerns see them merely as sources of profit and loss. Regarded in those terms, the environment is a great repository of natural wealth, belonging to all humanity, present and future, freely and equally.” Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, 1996

To Promote the General Welfare “requires ensuring that the right to life and to fulfillment of essential human needs essential for life, including food, quality health care, safe housing and quality education are available for everyone. Today, more than ever, we are deeply interconnected. Thus deprivation or suffering in one part of the world ultimately affects us all. Individuals, communities and governments all have a positive role to play in ensuring that people can survive and live with dignity.”The needs of the people who are poor take priority over the desires of the richCatholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, 1996

To Promote the General Welfare “The needs of the people who are poor take priority over the desires of the rich; the rights of workers over the maximization of profits; the prservation of the environment over uncontrolled industrial expansion; the production to meet social needs over production for military purposes.” Economic Justice for All, 94.United States Catholic Bishops Conference

Positive Steps to Take • Turn off the chatter and artificial stimulants • Seek quiet recesses – Develop the skill of interior silence • Unmask the desire for domination – Enchantment of mammon • Reflect on our own prejudices, biases and at times hatredof the other • Learn about the issues – Avoid the paralysis of ignorance

Develop Proficiencies By • Desiring to know and love the world – Openness • Learning skills essential to the spiritual life • Studying the issues – Half baked advocacy is not helpful • Promote a desire for community – Cultivation of the “we” • Practice hope

Practice Hope “What we have to transcend in South Africa is not just the pessimism of so many people but also the culture of blame that has developed over the years. Whenever anything goes wrong, we tend to look around for someone to blame. We point fingers and impute guilt. We feel restless and dissatisfied until we can find someone to accuse. Finding someone to blame gives us a feeling of satisfaction. Almost everybody indulges in this culture of blame at least is tempted to do so; politicians, journalists, editors, commentators, academics and saddest of all the church But Jesus didn’t do it. He didn .”

Practice Hope “Almost everybody indulges in this culture of blame at least is tempted to do so; politicians, journalists, editors, commentators, academics and saddest of all the church But Jesus didn’t do it. He didn’t go around pointing fingers at people. He didn’t go around hammering sinners. He saw them as people in need of healing, forgiveness and love. He saw them as hurt, wounded or lostWhen we look around for someone to blame, was are unable to obtain an unbiased view of the world and we are unable to see the finger of God at work in our world.”Hope in an Age of DespairAlbert Nolan, O.P.

Catholic Higher Education and the Common Good