We are living in times that the media likes to call polarized. In so many parts of our world—if not all—we find ourselves in situations of great social, political, and ecclesial tension, where the tone of discussion is harsh and aggressive. In this situation, each side accuses the other of being wrong and often of doing so maliciously. No one likes such a social, political, or ecclesial climate, but no one seems to know how to remedy it or even want to. From the perspective of Catholic Social Ethics, a first step toward remedying the situation would be to recover some of the basic and traditional elements of Catholic Social Theory.
There is no Catholic Social Ethics in the Church that we can declare immutable and eternal. Throughout its twenty centuries of existence, the Church has responded to the social demands of the Gospel in the different situations it has had to face. It has done its best, criticizing excesses or abuses that it considered unacceptable and proposing—sometimes even by example—ways of life that could embody what the Letter to Diognetus calls “an admirable and undoubtedly paradoxical way of life.” And yet, even though there is no immutable and eternal Catholic Social Ethics, we can speak of some essential elements of Catholic Social Ethics. One of them that must be remembered and vindicated in these turbulent times is that the other and the others cannot be seen first and foremost as adversaries and enemies. The default position in Catholic Social Ethics with regard to the others cannot be to consider them an enemy and adversary, but rather to consider them part of me, part of who I am and my call to a full life.
In 1947, when the world was beginning to leave behind the scourge of war that the same generation had experienced twice, Jacques Maritain published The Person and the Common Good. In it, he asks whether the person is simply an individual within a group and nothing more. His reflection sought to offer solid theoretical foundations for understanding the relationship between the individual and society that would prevent the atrocities of totalitarianism (whether of a communist of fascist type), but also to prevent the dissolution of society into an individualism that left each human being isolated and defenseless. To do this, Maritain drew on the social theory of St. Thomas, who in turn drew from Aristotle.
Maritain presented very well the tension that, from the point of view of Catholic Social Ethics, exists and must always exist between the person and society. The ultimate good to which each person tends – God— transcends society, but at the same time, the person needs society and others in order to exist, flourish and reach its final end. Our need of other, of society – as Maritain says- stems from poverty (material need) and abundance (spiritual capacity for self-giving). Because of poverty, we need society to provide us with the material goods necessary for our lives: food, clothing, housing, but also non-material goods such as education and medical care, without which we cannot live. We really need others; without them and in front of them, we are destitute.
We also need others, society –according to Maritain— by reason of abundance, in order to flourish as persons, to attain that perfection to which we are called: communication, knowledge, love are human dynamisms that we cannot realize on our own and that demonstrate our need for others and society.
This way of articulating the relationship between the person and society allows us to better understand the idea of the common good, which is not an easy idea. The common good is “the sum total of social conditions which enable associations and each of their members to achieve their perfection more fully and more easily” (Gaudium et Spes 26). This set of conditions of social life is what allows individuals and associations to flourish. Although the ultimate good is communion with God, to which each person is called, society, the other, and the others are part of the common good that allows us to flourish and develop as whole persons.
This is a profound truth of Christian anthropology and Catholic Social Theory that Catholic Social Ethics must remember—theoretically and practically— in these turbulent times if we want to overcome growing polarization. Neither I nor my small group can live fully by reason of poverty or abundance without others, without society. Undoubtedly, conflicts will arise in this context, and we will have to find ways to resolve them or live with them, but without forgetting that, as Pope Francis teaches, unity prevails over conflict (Evangelii Gaudium 226-230). We can never forget that the other and the others are part of the society that constitutes us and that grounds our existence and the possibility of a full existence to which our hearts aspire.