Seeking the Common Good, and Speaking Up!

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I hope that those of you who live in Minnesota voted in the Primary Election for County, State and Federal officials. I wasn't going to, then late in the day I popped on over. It was sad to see how few had signed for ballots. Maybe more will come after work.

Sister Edith O.S.B., who teaches Sociology at St Scholastica in Duluth and blogs at Monastic Musings, has been a civic frame of mind recently. She posted the other day on the "Common Good":

We don't hear about the Common Good very much - even charity and good deeds are more often described as helping people. That is a more individualistic description, even if the good deeds help a lot of people: it has to do with meeting particular needs of particular people. Choices and actions for the Common Good, in contrast, are not about particular needs, but about building the structure of our society in ways that are helpful, supporting, even nurturing, for everyone. Archbishop Gomez, in his recent column The Catholic Vote reminded his readers that everyone - not just politicians or social activitsts - are called to contribute to the common good.

"As people of faith, we believe both in the need to build a just society and in the supernatural destiny of the human person. This conviction naturally impels us to the building of the common good."
- Archbishop Jose Gomez
[snip]
Archbishop Gomez' words render the act of voting and of civic participation, to the extent we are able, not only good citizenship, but actions that are truly part of our spiritual lives as well. Read It All

Then, a few days later, Sister Edith noted in the Duluth newspaper that there was to be a public hearing that evening on the Mayor's proposed budget for 2007 and that the city's Human Rights Office was to be eliminated.

Believing strongly that this was not a good move, and practicing what she had just preached, for the first time she donned her "good citizens habit", being a nun, of course she always appears in her habit, and sped off to City Hall and lobbied the City Councillors who were reviewing the Mayor's proposals. This was her first political appearance. Read about it here!