Mod 3 & 4 (Justcre)

• Common Good


  Sums up the total social condition which allows people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily
• Common good involves promotion of the fundamental rights, the spiritual and temporal development, and the assurance of peace and security of all persons
• Respect and protection of human rights


  • Universal, inalienable, and inviolable in any culture and race
• Rights listed in Centesimus Annus

  • Right to life, including the right of the child to develop in the mother's womb
  • Right to live in a united family and in a moral environment conducive to the growth of the child's personality
  • Right to develop one's intelligence and freedom in seeking and knowing the truth
  • Right to share in the work which makes wise use of the earth's material resources, and to derive from that work the means to support oneself and one's dependents
  • Right freely to establish a family, to have and to rear children through the responsible exercise of one's sexuality
  • Right to religious freedom, understood as the right to live in the truth of one's faith and in conformity with one's transcendent dignity as a person
• Holistic development


  Process of self-actualization which involves physiological, psychological, social, spiritual, and cognitive aspects of the person
• Peace


  Not simply the absence of war or balance of power among adversaries, but the "tranquility and order", the "work of justice", and the effect of charity
• Good must be according to all and not just to the majority or to a specific group of people
• Social Justice


  The view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities, particularly those in greatest need
• Seeking the goodness of the other people is an expression of one's innate nature as a social being
• Common Good is naturally part of any social relationship
• Institutions and authorities have the greater responsibilities of ensuring social justice, but it is also the responsibility of each person to work harmoniously with each other in perfecting institutions as means to achieve social justice and development
• Preferential Option for the Poor

  Love for the poor inspired by Christ's constant attention and concern for the poor
• Jesus did not only prefer the economically poor or those materially and financially deprived but also those who are culturally, morally, and religiously suffering
• Preferential option for the poor is closely linked with the principle of the universal destination of world's goods
• St. John Paul II: '"This love of preference for the poor cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without medical care and, above all, those without hope of a better future. To ignore these realities would mean becoming like the 'rich man' who pretended not to know the beggar Lazarus lying at his gate"'
• Peace on earth is achievable through equal distribution and safeguarding the goods of persons
• Objectives of Common Good

  • Justify a person's right to access earth's goods
  • Promote solidarity with the poor and the needy
  • Donate for the immediate needs of the poor
• Common Good


  "Sums up the total social condition which allows people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily"
• "Good must be according to all and not just to the majority or to a specific group of people."
• Elements of promoting Common Good

  • Respect and protection of human rights
  • Holistic Development
  • Peace and Security
  • Social Justice
• Respect and protection of human rights


  Universal, inalienable, and inviolable
• Holistic Development


  Physiological, psychological, social, spiritual, and cognitive aspects of the person
• Peace and Security


  Not simply the absence of war or balance of power among adversaries, achievable through equal distribution and safeguarding the goods of persons
• Social Justice


  A society which considers the dignity and rights of the human person as an ultimate end consequently promotes social justice
• Man's fulfillment of his dignity is not confined to himself apart from or away from others. It is found in the actual performance of seeking the goodness of the other people – an expression of his innate nature as a social being.
• The distribution of created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is labouring today under the gravest evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered propertyless, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is, social justice
• Social Justice


  The view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities… particularly those in greatest need
• Although institutions and authorities have the greater responsibilities of ensuring social justice, it is also the responsibility of each person to work harmoniously with each other in perfecting institutions as means to achieve social justice and development
• A society which considers the dignity and rights of the human person as an ultimate
• Seeking the goodness of the other people – an expression of his innate nature as a social being
• Love for the poor is inspired by Christ's constant attention and concern for the poor. The Gospel of Matthew expresses it this way: "Whatever you have done to the least of my brethren, you have done to me"
• The proclamation of the Kingdom of God favored the poor when Christ proclaimed: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me; . . . He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor"
• Preferential option for the poor is closely link with the principle of the universal destination of world's goods
• As a Filipino Christian, this preference for the poor should not be hard to acknowledge. We live in the context where "poverty, exploitation and injustice have become their "way of life". Therefore, we are challenged not only to recognize the concepts of this preference rather put it into action.
• Peace is essential in promoting Human Dignity
• Peace is threatened when: Human rights is violated, Man's dignity is not respected, When community has no common good
• PEACE = DEVELOPMENT, By fighting poverty and combating inequalities in the society (Populorum Progressio, n. 76) - POPE SAINT VI
• Therefore, antecedent to the attainment of holistic development of the person, is the achievement of peace through economic development particularly eradication of poverty and assurance of the protection of basic human rights
• Negative peace


  Absence of violence or fear of violence both in micro and macro level
• Positive peace


  General-wellbeing and just social, economic, political, and ecological relationships