Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The demands of the common good are dependent on the social conditions of each historical period and are strictly connected to respect for and the integral promotion of the person and his fundamental rights^{349Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1907.}. These demands concern above all the commitment to peace, the organization of the State's powers, a sound juridical system, the protection of the environment, and the provision of essential services to all, some of which are at the same time human rights: food, housing, work, education and access to culture, transportation, basic health care, the freedom of communication and expression, and the protection of religious freedom^{350Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 26: AAS 58 (1966), 1046-1047.}. Nor must one forget the contribution that every nation is required in duty to make towards a true worldwide cooperation for the common good of the whole of humanity and for future generations also^{351Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 421.}.

The common good therefore involves all members of society, no one is exempt from cooperating, according to each one's possibilities, in attaining it and developing it^{352Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961), 417; Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 46: AAS 63 (1971), 433-435; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1913.}. The common good must be served in its fullness, not according to reductionist visions that are subordinated by certain people to their advantages; own rather it is to be based on a logic that leads to the assumption of greater responsibility. The common good corresponds to the highest of human instincts^{353Saint Thomas Aquinas places “knowledge of the truth about God” and “life in society” at the highest and most specific level of man's “inclinationes naturales” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 94, a. 2: Ed. Leon. 7, 170: “Secundum igitur ordinem inclinationum naturalium est ordo praeceptorum legis naturae ... Tertio modo inest homini inclinatio ad bonum secundum naturam rationis, quae est sibi propria; sicut homo habet naturalem inclinationem ad hoc quod veritatem cognoscat de Deo, et ad hoc quod in societate vivat”).}, but it is a good that is very difficult to attain because it requires the constant ability and effort to seek the good of others as though it were one's own good. Everyone also has the right to enjoy the conditions of social life that are brought about by the quest for the common good. The teaching of Pope Pius XI is still relevant: “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”^{354Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 197.}.