pathways, SEPTEMBER 2007
Dear Friends,
A Federal election will be called within months, possibly within weeks. Religious have longstanding involvement in enabling the Church's contributions to society through education, healthcare, and social services. So we take a keen interest in the ballot box.
Politics for us is about an old idea that is always fresh: the common good.
To test whether a policy serves the common good we ask what impact it will have on those who are poor and vulnerable. The story of every religious congregation is about our experience in serving the poor. Our religious communities renew themselves by returning with vigour to these original stories which carry our first inspiration, and by seeking to live out that mission in today's society with today's needs.
This means we must seek to look with fresh eyes at our society.
Contemplation changes our way of perceiving God and God's creation. If we can allow God to be a God of love and compassion for us, and through us, towards all people and all creation, then we may approach today's people, and thus politics, with new vigour.
While many politicians offer individual satisfaction, people of faith long for leaders who consider the needs of all. There is waste in society and rampant destruction of our earth's resources. If we do not learn to see things differently, then we could now be cooperating in doing great damage to human life on earth.
Politics and faith need one another for the good of all.
While the common good is at the heart of Catholic tradition, it is a view that pre-dates Jesus Christ.
Cicero, in his treatise on Public Responsibility, wrote:
"We are not born for ourselves alone ... Everything that the earth produces is created for our use, and we, too, as human beings are born for the sake of other human beings that we might be able mutually to help one another; we ought therefore to take nature as our guide and contribute to the common good of humankind by reciprocal acts of kindness, by giving and receiving from one another, and thus by our skill, our industry, and our talents work to bring human society together in peace and harmony."
In the 3rd Century, Cyprian of Carthage took up the same theme when explaining the common prayer of Christians, the
Our Father. It is a prayer for the common good, he said.
"When we pray, we are not to pray for ourselves alone. We do not say, 'My Father, who art in heaven' or, 'Give me this day my daily bread'; we do not ask for our own trespasses alone to be forgiven; and when we pray that we may be delivered from evil, we are not praying only for ourselves either. Our prayer is for the general good, for the common good. When we pray, we do not pray for our own selves alone; we pray for all God's people, because they and we are one.
A number of religious in Queensland have prepared a useful briefing on the forthcoming elections called
Refresh Australia, concentrating particularly on climate change policy, indigenous Australia, and industrial relations policies. (see our
pathways article)
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has prepared a statement called
A Vote for Us All which seeks to focus questions of vital concern to the entire Australian community and the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council has produced a brochure,
A Vote for Social Justice.
Together with the Australian Bishops, we religious urge Catholics to take their democratic freedoms seriously and become involved in the political process in the ways that are appropriate to each.
Sincerely,
Mark Raper SJ
President, Catholic Religious Australia
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