Common Good - Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching

One of the earliest references to the concept of the common good is found in the "Epistle of Barnabas": "Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already justified, but gather instead to seek together the common good."

The common good is a concept central to Catholic social teaching tradition beginning with the foundational document, Rerum Novarum, a papal encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, issued in 1891 to combat the excesses of both laissez-faire capitalism on the one hand and communism on the other. In this letter, Pope Leo guarantees the right to private property while insisting on the role of the state to require a living wage.

Another relevant document is Veritatis Splendor, a papal encyclical by Pope John Paul II, issued in 1993 to combat the relaxation of moral norms and the political corruption (see Paragraph 98) that affects millions of persons. In this letter, Pope John Paul describes the characteristics and virtues that political leadership should require, which are truthfullness, honesty, fairness, temperance and solidarity (as described in paragraph 98 to 100), given that truth extends from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular.

As an ethical and moral imperative, the common good is central to the tenets of many religious faiths and can be succinctly described as doing unto others, to use a Christian phrase, as we would wish done unto ourselves (known as The Golden Rule; also see its Confucian complement, "do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you," commonly called "The Silver Rule"). Aristotle was the first to articulate an ethical understanding of common good, followed by Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas who developed the concept into standard moral theology.