By Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
As our General Elections on May 24 approaches, the CCSJ urges the faithful and indeed each citizen, to vote for those who share our vision of a just society; a society in which our politicians and citizens are concerned to build the common good – together.
Before the recent General Elections held in the UK, and in advance of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the UK in September, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales issued a 19-page guide entitled: Choosing the Common Good, and a questionnaire to assist politicians and voters.
The guide highlights some of the key issues in Catholic Social Teaching e.g. poverty and inequality – including the need to support the development of the world’s poor, care of the elderly, migration and community relations, the global community and ecology, marriage and family life, valuing life (addressing issues such as abortion and euthanasia), and the role of faith communities.
It calls for a renewal of the moral culture of UK society and focusses on the very issues with which our archdiocese is concerned in our third Pastoral Priority – Renewing the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society – an area for which the CCSJ has lead responsibility.
Interestingly, in the 1990s when I lived in London I was a member of the Bishops’ Committee for Community Relations. We drafted the Bishops’ earlier document entitled: “The Common Good”. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference states in the foreword of Choosing the Common Good that this guide “echoes” the earlier 1996 document.
Choosing the Common Good is a “must read” for us as we prepare for our elections. The Bishops say that finding a shared vision for society is more urgent than the detail of particular party policies: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18)…
The period before a General Election is a time to reflect on what sort of society we live in and how we would like it to be. It gives us the opportunity to renew our energies and our work for a better future. What do we really hope for in our society today? What encourages us? What alarms us?”
The Bishops remind us that the task of building a just society/ addressing social issues is the responsibility of each of us and not only of the Government. We are all called to promote the common good which, as the guide states:
“… is the sum total of social conditions which allow people to reach their fulfillment…It is about how to live well together… it acknowledges that all are responsible for all… it expands our understanding of who we are and opens up new sources of motivation… Integral human development…requires that people are rescued from every form of poverty, from hunger and illiteracy . . . it requires opportunities for education, creating a vision of true partnership and solidarity between peoples. . . it calls for active participation in economic and political processes and it recognises that every person is a spiritual being with instincts for love and truth and aspirations for happiness…This notion is the heart of the Christian social message.”
The guide states that virtue is fundamental to social behaviour and that virtues must be practised at all times:
“The virtues form us as moral agents, so that we do what is right and honourable for no other reason than that it is right and honourable, irrespective of reward and regardless of what we are legally obliged to do…Virtuous action springs from a sense of one’s dignity and that of others, and from self-respect as a citizen. It is doing good even when no-one is looking.”
As one media report stated, “the basic message of the document is that if you want a good society then people need to behave virtuously – in their business lives, social lives, when they participate in civil society and in their public lives.”
So, as the election debates “heat up”, let us remember, as the guide tells us:
“We depend on each other. And we need a Government that draws out what is best in all of us, and which aims to serve the common good. So the fundamental question we each need to ask ourselves in deciding who to vote for is not who will best serve me, but who will best serve the common good of all of us.”
The document concludes: “Our faith is at the heart of our lives. Religious belief is not just something private: it helps create a society that wants to see everyone flourish. It has a contribution to make and must be allowed to do so in accordance with its teachings. Whoever you decide to vote for, from whichever political party you decide to support, send back to Parliament someone who understands and will work for the common good.”
