Spring 2016 stories

Is there a common good in our common home?

Pope Francis, in his encyclical, Laudato Si’ On Care for Our Common Home, argues that the practice of the common good today must be understood as a practice of solidarity— a practice by which we come to know and value the full and innate dignity of every person, every cultural ecology, every dimension of the natural world, and seek to share our diverse goods freely with one another for mutual benefit, for the good of all creation. “In the present condition of global society, where injustices abound and growing numbers of people are deprived of basic human rights and considered expendable, the principle of the common good immediately becomes, logically and inevitably, a summons to solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest of our brothers and sisters” (§158).

The 2016-2018 Bannan Institute: Is There A Common Good in Our Common Home? A Summons to Solidarity will explore pressing racial, economic, gender, and environmental justice issues facing our world today and resource SCU faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the broader community to advance the common good through a summons to solidarity.