common good

In his continuing series of articles for The Catholic Citizen, Colin Miller reflects on the Church’s social teaching that property is only legitimately “mine” when it is used for the common good. Lawsuits, insurance, risk, property codes, a money economy, liability, consumer culture, single-use-disposable containers—all of this and much more help make a world where every item belongs “absolutely” to someone, rather than “loosely” as a trust for the purpose of building community.

True solutions to social problems have to come from within, not outside institutions. This is personalism, and it is deep in the heart of the Catholic social tradition, says Colin Miller in the third of his series on the ideas underpinning the Catholic Worker Movement.