POLITICAL ELECTIONS 2022. THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE AND HAPPY. TO THE REDISCOVERY OF THE PERSON AND THE COMMON GOOD

 

The Common Good is tension to perfection reminds us that the political choice is always a choice in the making. The perfections, living conditions change and change, just like the parties: we need a heart and an attentive look at the signs of the times and at the neighbor who lives in a state of material poverty, moral and spiritual.

- Actuality -

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The year was 2005. As a young undergraduate student in philosophy at the state university Wisdom I had to make one of the first academic choices of my life. The curriculum of studies at the time required me to make a choice of specialization, then choose which specific subject I would have deepened within the philosophical branches.

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After careful reflection and prayer, I matured with God's help, the will to continue my studies in the specialization in political philosophy. This implied that the courses and research that I would support would also touch upon the fields of moral philosophy and law. The most recurring theme in those years among us young students and young philosophers was more or less always that: what is the relationship between the citizen and the institution? Between the whole and the part?

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After entering religious life this topic has continued to interest me. Especially because I have had good professors of moral theology and of the social doctrine of the Church who have been able to rigorously and systematically explain the thought of the Church on socio-political issues. I thank these teachers, many of whom are my brothers, because with their lessons today they allow me to express some reflections on the forthcoming political elections in which we all as citizens will have the opportunity to participate.

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The current political landscape, as it is known, is divided into three major parties, with the necessary internal nuances: Right, Left and Third Pole. So, to the nomenclature and division typical of Italian politics at the beginning of the twentieth century, we also find the insertion of a centrist pole. This is therefore the fact of reality what will be presented in the ballot paper that the Catholic voter will open and on which he will have the right to vote. Already the Father Ivano expressed himself in another very nice and profound article.

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We are therefore in a democratic system where we are all called to be responsible for the Common Good.

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About democracy, I always loved, read and meditated several times on the beautiful words of Annus, social encyclical which I advise all Catholics to read and meditate deeply:

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«The Church appreciates the system of democracy, as it ensures the participation of citizens in political choices and guarantees the governed the possibility of both electing and controlling their rulers, and to replace them peacefully, where this is appropriate. That, therefore, it cannot favor the formation of small managerial groups, who for particular interests or for ideological ends usurp the power of the State [1]».

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Now democracy, as Aristotle already teaches in the Policy, if badly managed, by free choice or incompetence, easily becomes demagoguery. I won't get too specific so as not to digress, but I also remember the studies on democracy, which can also easily assume dictatorial or totalitarian forms [2]. In practice what the Father Ariel analyzes in one of his works as "the phenomenon of democracy without freedom". What is the democratic foundation that then avoids these drifts? She explains it herself Annus:

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«[…] An authentic democracy is possible only in a rule of law and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. It demands that the necessary conditions be met for the promotion of both individuals through education and formation in true ideals, and of the "subjectivity" of society through the creation of structures of participation and co-responsibility [3].»

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The first and true pillar of the company it is then the human person. Many books have been written on the concept of person, so much ink has been poured into as many reflections, on which perhaps a thousand pages would not be enough. Thus the person is the propulsive and intensive center of ideas, actions and values ​​for civil society and for the Church. So every democracy must defend it, promote it and educate it in civic and universal values. Every local Church must sanctify it, teach her correct doctrine and govern her on the way to holiness.

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The invitation to this rediscovery of man in its freedom and vocation to sociality it comes directly from God who created man in his own image and likeness. Like the One God, he is one in nature but threefold in person, thus by creating us, he in turn gave us the possibility of being people and of living according to freedom and relationship with one's neighbor. Jesus asks the apostles to be the light of the world. To lead every person to truth and goodness. This allows us to introduce the second major pillar of society and the state, according to the Church: the Common Good.

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We have seen that the document of St. John Paul II speaks of participation and co-responsibility in democratic choice. This is because it has a great Catholic tradition and reflection behind it on the theme of the Common Good, as the second great pillar of the Company. Each person is the center if he also knows how to decentralize. If he knows how to come out of himself to give himself to find himself in a collective communion that respects his individuality at the same time but also knows how to elevate it. Every person is relational and is called to social and ecclesial communion. She is called on a journey of truth and goodness. That is: the Lord invites us to the truth which makes us free to do good. Jesus then told those Jews that they had believed in him:

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“If you stick to my word, you will truly be my disciples; you will know the truth and the truth will set you free" [GV 8, 31-32].

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The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church clearly and concisely expresses the concept of the Common Good:

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"From dignity, unity and equality of all people derives above all the principle of the common good, to which every aspect of social life must refer to find full meaning. According to a first and broad meaning, by common good we mean "the set of conditions of social life that allow both communities and individual members, to reach one's perfection more fully and more quickly". The common good does not consist in the simple sum of the particular goods of each subject of the social body. Being of all and of each one, it is and remains common, because it is indivisible and because it is only possible to achieve it together, grow it and keep it, also in view of the future. How the moral action of the individual is realized in doing good, thus social action reaches its fullness by realizing the common good. The common good, indeed, can be understood as the social and community dimension of the moral good"[4].

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The Common Good as a set of conditions for the achievement of a greater perfection for the person. I think I have never found a more beautiful and more complete definition of the Common Good, in all the authors I studied and wrote about during my university years and even after. The Common Good as a tension towards improvement is in the first place, call for the enhancement and recognition of our neighbor ― with our work (basis of the Italian constitution), with respect for civic duties ― the neighbor who is a you that God has placed in our Italian nation and with which we must cohabit responsibly.

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In second place, the Common Good is tension to perfection reminds us that the political choice is always and in any case a choice in the making. The perfections, living conditions change and change, just like the parties: we need a heart and an attentive look at the signs of the times and at the neighbor who lives in a state of material poverty, moral and spiritual.

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there, so, the two poles that every Catholic must keep in mind when they present themselves at the polling station. And that every Catholic deputy or senator must always have in mind, if he is elected, and will present itself in Parliament.

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If perhaps this to the keyboard theologians and their supercazzole exhibited in the cathedrals of the social network it will sound like an abstract and beautiful speech in theory, but in practice absolutely impracticable, will once again prove how this generation of Digital Age she is perhaps one of the most ignorant ones in history but who at the same time believes herself to be the smartest ever. Because it's one of those digital generations that thinks of splitting up theory e praxis, but he knows nothing of either. That said, this is the call in conscience to the moral and social principles that should guide us. I have no intention of offering electoral and party suggestions. My task as a priest and theologian is therefore only to remember those core values ​​for all the faithful and encourage them to live them consistently. To imitate those who have embodied these values ​​in the past. Their actualization will also be made explicit by the circumstances from the principle of epic who will be able to suggest it to the readers.

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I conclude by asking you to pray for our Italy, because it also rediscovers the values ​​of secularism - against the prevailing secularism - and knows how to make faith dialogue, culture and theology, between Catholics and men distant from the faith always with the good will to serve the person and the Common Good.

Jesus sweet Jesus love (St. Caterina da Siena)

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Rome, 23 September 2022

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NOTE

[1] Annus, 46.

[2] I refer to those who want to deepen the necessary J. Talmon, At the origins of totalitarian democracy, The Mill, Bologna, 1967.

[3] Annus, 46.

[4] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 164.

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Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

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