M Albert Krąpiec OP

• Born 1921 in Berezowica Mata (now Ukraine)

• PhD in philosophy (Kraków)

• PhD in theology (Angelicum)

• Dean of philosophy, then rector at KUL

Society for people

“we are social beings because we are not able to put all our natural powers to use

without existing and interacting with others”

“thanks to the dialogue that we take on with others, and the content of knowledge &

love that we communicate to them, social life becomes possible”

biological human / social person

Common Good

• Marxism stresses “common” - collective• liberal capitalism stresses “good” - individual• totalitarian stresses good of state - not citizens• Catholic social teaching – good of every person

i.e. personalism

“the perfecting of the personal being always means the enrichment of society… personal

good is at the same time the common good of all; it enriches everyone”

Work for each one’s needs

“the common good is everything that possesses the capacity of fulfilling… individual people”

“the common good ‘increases’ thanks to human work”:

• socio-economic system• social security & insurance• trade unions

State & Law

• State as an end, not a means

• Political power should be subordinate to the law

• Nation as community of common values – culture, faith, language, history

• Natural law is the ordering of society towards the common good, the participation of human nature in God’s law

Human Rights

• We are born (at conception) with them, they are natural to us as being human

• Nobody can give them to anyone and nobody can take them away

• The universal declaration (1948) does not establish them, but only declares them

• Every state should recognise them as binding in their constitution

Democracy

• Politics was social ethics for the common good until

• Machiavelli (d.1527) – politics as art of governing, using power, confusing means with ends

• Citizens have a duty to participate• Even democracy should serve society, and a

dignified life for all (not abortion, euthanasia)• “politics is nothing other than the service of

others for their own good”

Spirituality of Common Good

• God as the first, ultimate cause of everything• real good of every person is self-fulfilment

- through truth, love & freedom, • stressed through exchange of spiritual goods

- knowledge, morality, art & religion

“the common good appears in people as their ‘own’ personal good, derived from reason, which they are bound to ‘love’, because it obliges from

within.”

What does this mean for us?

• We need to know and speak from our own context,

• in a language in which we can be heard• as Dominicans in tension between action

and contemplation• How can we speak of God in a secular

context (of injustice)?• How can we bring the common good

into our spirituality and liturgy?