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The Practical Impact Of The Common Good In Catholic Social Thought, John J. Coughlin
The Practical Impact Of The Common Good In Catholic Social Thought, John J. Coughlin
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As an introduction to the general panel discussion, I would like to pose the following question. Is the notion of the common good in Catholic social thought merely a nice sounding theory, or does it have any real and practical impact?
The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes offers this definition of the common good: "the sum of those conditions" which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily. This notion of the common good places a primacy on the flourishing of individual human beings-spiritually, intellectually, culturally, and financially-through participation in …