Patrick is a newly ordained deacon. He and his wife Lupe have asked their pastor to resurrect the "Social Justice" Committee for their parish.

Patrick and Lupe were introduced to prison ministry during their diaconate training and fell in love with the opportunity to minister to those incarcerated. As a result they want to invite parishioners to join them in their commitment to "restorative justice."

The parish also has a "Pro-Life" Committee, of which Patrick and Lupe are members. However, they are beginning to wonder if there should be two committees. After all, it became clear with Pope John Paul II's groundbreaking encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, that the Church defined its pro-life stand as embracing issues that address both the unborn and the born.

Lupe and Patrick wonder what would happen if the Pro-Life and Social Justice Committees would join hands, hearts and energies to promote the "Gospel of Life."

Catholic Moral Tradition

It could be legitimately posited that there are three intrinsic foundations to the Catholic Moral Tradition:

---The understanding of the human person as the "imago Dei" (image of God).

---Embracing the consistent ethic of life from conception to natural death.

---Grounding every political decision in a genuine concern for the "common good."

It is clear that these three pillars work together and are only able to support authentic moral growth in individuals and society when they are embraced in unity.

Only a Christian anthropology that recognizes that every human person is created in the image of God can present a rock solid morality that defends the dignity of every human person regardless of ethnicity, culture, skin color, country of origin, educational level, gender, religion or sexual orientation:

"The Book of Genesis provides us with certain foundations of Christian anthropology: the inalienable dignity of the human person, the roots and guarantee of which are found in God's design of creation…" (Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, n. 37).

Of course the understanding of the intrinsic value of every human person serves as an essential theological complement to the Church's "consistent ethic of life." It is impossible to promote universal peace and the authentic family of humankind, and condemn any and all forms of racism and prejudice, without simultaneously addressing the need to protect the right to life of every human being.

By asserting the right to life of every human person, especially those most vulnerable, the unborn, the aged and the poor and marginalized, Catholic morality understands the intrinsic connection between its understanding of the human person as the "imago Dei" and the call to promote a consistent ethic of life with no "ifs, ands or buts."

At the same time, one is only authentically "pro-life" when one's love and concern is directed to both the unborn and the born. The Church's moral call understands that her social morality and the consistent ethic of life are as authentically entwined as the two great commandments: "…to love God with all your heart, mind and soul … to love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22: 37-39).

Jesus' self-effacing love
This leads us to the "common good" as the third foundational pillar of Catholic morality. The Church's understanding of a "good" society is one that is absolutely dependent on the commitment of every citizen to the "common good."

A society composed of individuals whose self-interest is primary is ultimately destructive. Love and selfishness are incompatible. Every Christian relationship is based on authentic love which is defined by Jesus so clearly in the Gospel of John 13:34-35: I give you a new commandment: Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another.

We can understand this command from Jesus only if we understand "his love for us." Jesus' love was a self-effacing love. His life was a life totally and unconditionally devoted to humanity. He became a human for one reason and one reason alone, to love us beyond all understanding by giving His life for our salvation.

The teaching of Jesus makes it clear that a vision that fully embraces a desire to bring about the "common good," the good for my sister and brother as much as for myself, is absolutely essential to authentic Christian discipleship, since our love for one another must be "as Jesus' love has been for us." Every decision we make, every vote we cast should be done only after we ask ourselves, "Is this decision a benefit to my sisters and brothers?"

The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses the topic of the "common good" at length (1905-1912). In part it reminds us of the importance and definition of the topic in Catholic teaching:

In keeping with the social nature of the human person, the good of each individual is necessarily related to the common good, which in turn can be defined only in reference to the human person. "Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already justified, but gather instead to seek the common good together" (Ep. Barnabae, 4,10).

By common good is to be understood, "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily" (Gaudium et Spes, 26,1;74,1). The common good concerns the life of all.

A vision beyond local concerns
Of course, there is an integral and ultimately inseparable connection between the personal good and common good: "…the common good that people seek and attain in the formation of social communities is the guarantee of their personal, familial and associative good." (Gaudium et Spes, n. 32). It is in the political arena that the Christian embrace of the common good is most fully alive.

In fact, the Church makes it clear that the fundamental role of the state is to "defend and promote the common good of civil society…" (CCC, n. 1910). In fact, as globalization becomes more and more the reality of the world in which we find ourselves, an authentic understanding of the call for Christian discipleship as entailing a vision of the common good is more and more a vision that moves Christians beyond a local or even "national" concern.

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 individuals and peoples; this will involve the sphere of social life to which belong questions of food, hygiene, education, alleviating the miseries of refugees dispersed throughout the world, and assisting migrants and their families" (CCC, n. 1911).

Respect for our Catholic vision
In the end, the Catholic moral vision is served when individual disciples and parishes encourage the complementary nature of the three pillars of Christian morality, the innate dignity of the human person created in the image of God, the defense of human life from the moment of conception to natural death, and the promotion of the common good.

It makes no sense for a parish to have both "Pro-Life" and "Social Justice" committees. How can one be pro-life without a concern for the poor and marginalized? How can one promote social justice without defending every person's "right to life"?

In the end, the common good, the understanding of the human person and the promotion of life are complementary, not competitive. Unfortunately, the Church's constant teaching about the essential nature of the "common good" as a foundation for authentic Christian discipleship has faded in the last half century. As we face the greatest global economic disaster since the "great depression" of 1929, it may well be time for us to recover our respect for our Catholic vision of and dedication to the common good.

After all, in response to Cain's question to God in Genesis, "Am I my brother's (sister's) keeper?", for the Christian there is only one possible reply: "Yes, I am."

Indeed, as Jesus says in the Gospel of John (8: 32): "The truth will set you free."

Vincentian Father Richard Benson is academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo. His column appears monthly in The Tidings.