Passion for Freedom and for the Common Good
Elections 2010The spread of a confused cultural relativism and of a utilitarian and hedonistic individualism weakens democracy and favours the dominance of strong powers. We must recover and reinvigorate authentic political wisdom; be demanding in what concerns our own sphere of competency; make discerning use of the research of the human sciences; face reality in all its aspects, going beyond any kind of ideological reductionism or utopian dream; show we are open to true dialogue and collaboration, bearing in mind that politics is also a complex art of equilibrium between ideals and interests, but never forgetting that the contribution of Christians can be effective only if knowledge of faith becomes knowledge of reality, the key to judgement and transformation.
(Benedict XVI, Address to the 24th Plenary Session of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, May 21, 2010).
The circumstances God has us pass through are an essential and not secondary factor of our vocation, of the mission to which we are called. If Christianity is the announcement of the fact that the Mystery became incarnate in a man, the circumstance in which one takes position on this, before the whole world, is important for the definition itself of the testimony.
(Luigi Giussani, L’uomo e il suo destino. In cammino, [Man and His Destiny. On the Road] Genoa 2002, p. 63)
Every circumstance is a provocation that pushes us to consider what we hold dearest in our life. For this reason, everything interests us! Thus also politics, which is the instrument women and men have for pursuing the common good, the good of all.
In these elections, we ask that this desire for the common good be rekindled in us, who are increasingly prey to individualism. And then we work to build relationships with people (politicians and others) who have this same horizon, who are persons who desire to serve a people and not their own interests.
The first victory in these elections is a
restlessness aroused in us, an inability to rest easy, not provoked by anger or malaise due to the lack of an adequate political class, but by the desire that women and men may encounter an experience of good. May this desire set each of us to work personally, without delegating to others, so that by building everywhere, we may be a piece of new world.
1) We don’t ask politics to save us. We don’t look to politics for hope for us and for others. The tradition of the Church has always indicated two ideal criteria for judging every civil authority and political proposal:
a. Libertas Ecclesiae. A power that respects the freedom of a phenomenon as sui generis as the Church will also be tolerant with any other authentic human aggregation. Acknowledgment of the public role of the faith and the contribution it can give to the journey of women and men is, therefore, a guarantee of freedom for all, not only for Christians.
b. The “common good”. Power, as service of the people, defends the experiences in which the desire of women and men and their responsibility can grow in function of the common good, through the construction of social and economic works, according to the principle of subsidiarity, knowing that no program can guarantee the realization of the common good in definitive terms because of the intrinsic limits in all human endeavours.
2) For this reason, we give our preference to those who promote politics and a way of being of the State that favour “freedom” and “the common good,” and thus can sustain hope for the future, defending life, the family, the freedom to educate and to achieve works that incarnate the desire of women and men. We do this in a historic moment that demands we not waste our vote, in order not to increase confusion in an already confused context.
In particular, we invite all to look at some friends who, starting from their personal commitment with the Christian experience we share, have already demonstrated that they fight for politics at the service of the common good, of subsidiarity, and of libertas Ecclesiae. We trust that they can continue to testify to the newness that has entered their life as it has ours, so that their action may always make more explicit the fruit of the education we have received: a passion for freedom and for the good experienced as charity.
The Catholic Movement of Communion and Liberation
br.clonline.org
Passion for Freedom and for the Common Good
Elections 2010The spread of a confused cultural relativism and of a utilitarian and hedonistic individualism weakens democracy and favours the dominance of strong powers. We must recover and reinvigorate authentic political wisdom; be demanding in what concerns our own sphere of competency; make discerning use of the research of the human sciences; face reality in all its aspects, going beyond any kind of ideological reductionism or utopian dream; show we are open to true dialogue and collaboration, bearing in mind that politics is also a complex art of equilibrium between ideals and interests, but never forgetting that the contribution of Christians can be effective only if knowledge of faith becomes knowledge of reality, the key to judgement and transformation.
(Benedict XVI, Address to the 24th Plenary Session of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, May 21, 2010).
The circumstances God has us pass through are an essential and not secondary factor of our vocation, of the mission to which we are called. If Christianity is the announcement of the fact that the Mystery became incarnate in a man, the circumstance in which one takes position on this, before the whole world, is important for the definition itself of the testimony.
(Luigi Giussani, L’uomo e il suo destino. In cammino, [Man and His Destiny. On the Road] Genoa 2002, p. 63)
Every circumstance is a provocation that pushes us to consider what we hold dearest in our life. For this reason, everything interests us! Thus also politics, which is the instrument women and men have for pursuing the common good, the good of all.
In these elections, we ask that this desire for the common good be rekindled in us, who are increasingly prey to individualism. And then we work to build relationships with people (politicians and others) who have this same horizon, who are persons who desire to serve a people and not their own interests.
The first victory in these elections is a
restlessness aroused in us, an inability to rest easy, not provoked by anger or malaise due to the lack of an adequate political class, but by the desire that women and men may encounter an experience of good. May this desire set each of us to work personally, without delegating to others, so that by building everywhere, we may be a piece of new world.
1) We don’t ask politics to save us. We don’t look to politics for hope for us and for others. The tradition of the Church has always indicated two ideal criteria for judging every civil authority and political proposal:
a. Libertas Ecclesiae. A power that respects the freedom of a phenomenon as sui generis as the Church will also be tolerant with any other authentic human aggregation. Acknowledgment of the public role of the faith and the contribution it can give to the journey of women and men is, therefore, a guarantee of freedom for all, not only for Christians.
b. The “common good”. Power, as service of the people, defends the experiences in which the desire of women and men and their responsibility can grow in function of the common good, through the construction of social and economic works, according to the principle of subsidiarity, knowing that no program can guarantee the realization of the common good in definitive terms because of the intrinsic limits in all human endeavours.
2) For this reason, we give our preference to those who promote politics and a way of being of the State that favour “freedom” and “the common good,” and thus can sustain hope for the future, defending life, the family, the freedom to educate and to achieve works that incarnate the desire of women and men. We do this in a historic moment that demands we not waste our vote, in order not to increase confusion in an already confused context.
In particular, we invite all to look at some friends who, starting from their personal commitment with the Christian experience we share, have already demonstrated that they fight for politics at the service of the common good, of subsidiarity, and of libertas Ecclesiae. We trust that they can continue to testify to the newness that has entered their life as it has ours, so that their action may always make more explicit the fruit of the education we have received: a passion for freedom and for the good experienced as charity.
The Catholic Movement of Communion and Liberation
br.clonline.org