The 2012 election came at a time when the U.S. faced the highest poverty rates in decades, when the wealth gap and income disparities reached historic levels, and when government officials faced stark choices about who will benefit and who will suffer as a result of the decisions they make. Will those decisions be based on the common good* or will they serve only to enrich the already super-wealthy and divide us further? Will they foster economic justice and peace? Or will our nation become mired in injustice and division?
During the election season, a coalition of national Catholic organizations (listed below) worked to build on the momentum created during the 2008 election, when individuals and groups across the U.S. created a national Platform for the Common Good, which was ratified at the Convention for the Common Good in Philadelphia.
In 2012, our goal was to create common-good* platforms for each state and the District of Columbia, to be signed and delivered to candidates and public officials. Each of these individual platforms were written with the input of people in that state or the District of Columbia, and include a national preamble that outlines a common-good perspective.
We invite you to continue to use these platforms to engage elected officials in conversations about the common good.
Election 2012: Catholics Vote for the Common Good project partners:
- Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good
- Catholics United
- Conference of Major Superiors of Men
- Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach
- Federation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph
- Franciscan Action Network
- Franciscan Federation
- Franciscan Friars (Eastern Province)
- Good Shepherd Sisters
- Leadership Conference of Women Religious
- Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
- NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
- Pax Christi USA
- Pax Romana
- Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
*“The common good is the total of all those conditions of social living – economic, political, sociological and cultural – which make it possible for women and men readily and fully to achieve the perfection of their humanity. Individual rights are always experienced within the context of the promotion of the common good.
Catholic social thought’s vision of promoting the common good involves working on developing in society all those conditions of social living through which each and every person can be enabled to achieve their authentic human development more fully.”
Edward P. Deberri, James E. Hug, Peter J. Henriot, and Michael J. Schultheis, “Catholic Social Teaching Our Best Kept Secret” (Orbis Books, Fourth Edition, 2004) 23
