Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 327 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 327 – Part I. How can the common good be promoted?

(Youcat answer) The common good follows wherever the fundamental rights of the person are respected and men can freely develop their intellectual and religious potential. The common good implies that men can live in society with freedom, peace, and security. In an age of globalization, the common good must also acquire a worldwide scope and allow for the rights and duties of all mankind.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1907) First, the common good presupposes respect for the person as such. In the name of the common good, public authorities are bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person. Society should permit each of its members to fulfill his vocation. In particular, the common good resides in the conditions for the exercise of the natural freedoms indispensable for the development of the human vocation, such as "the right to act according to a sound norm of conscience and to safeguard… privacy, and rightful freedom also in matters of religion" (GS 26 § 2).

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The common good is best served where the good of the individual person and of the smaller units of society (for instance, the family) is central. The individual and the smaller social unit need to be protected and promoted by the stronger power of State institutions.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1908) Second, the common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties. Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good, between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on (Cf. GS 26 § 2).  

(This question: How can the common good be promoted? is continued)