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

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

(Youcat answer - repeated) 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 1909) Finally, the common good requires peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order. It presupposes that authority should ensure by morally acceptable means the security of society and its members. It is the basis of the right to legitimate personal and collective defence. (CCC 1910) Each human community possesses a common good which permits it to be recognized as such; it is in the political community that its most complete realization is found. It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies.

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 1911) Human interdependence is increasing and gradually spreading throughout the world. The unity of the human family, embracing people who enjoy equal natural dignity, implies a universal common good. This good calls for an organization of the community of nations able to "provide for the different needs of men; this will involve the sphere of social life to which belong questions of food, hygiene, education, . . . and certain situations arising here and there, as for example . . . alleviating the miseries of refugees dispersed throughout the world, and assisting migrants and their families" (GS 84 § 2).      

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