The Practical Impact of the Common Good in Catholic Social Thought

Authors

John J. Coughlin, Notre Dame Law School

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2001

Publication Information

75 St. John's L. Rev. 293 (2001)

Abstract

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 solidarity with others. It stands in direct opposition to any system of government which denies the conditions for human flourishing.

Comments

Reprinted with permission of St. John's Law Review.

Recommended Citation

John J. Coughlin, The Practical Impact of the Common Good in Catholic Social Thought, 75 St. John's L. Rev. 293 (2001).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/745