1   What is politics?

a)   Politics in the widest sense is the dynamic organization of society for the common good.  As such it calls for the responsible active participation of all citizens (cf. Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, Religious Life and Human Promotion, 1980, no. 12). 

b)  Politics may be described as the art of government and public service. Vatican II describes politics as a "difficult and noble art" (GS, 75). Its aim is to realize the purpose of the State. 

c)  Politics is also used for partisan politics, the competition to win or retain positions of governmental power.  In this last sense clerics and religious are forbidden by church law to be involved in (partisan) politics.

2   What is the purpose of the State?

The purpose of the State is the protection and promotion of the common good. In general this purpose is accomplished through three tasks: (1) legislation and administration of justice, (2) promotion of the socio-economic welfare and health, and (3) care for cultural and moral concerns or the fostering of good morals (see Karl H. Peschke, S.V.D., Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the light of Vatican II, vol. II, Special Moral Theology, 1987, pp. 267-71).

3   What is the common good?

The common good is "the sum total of social conditions which allow          people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and easily" (GS, 26).

It consists of three essential elements: (a) it presupposes respect for the fundamental rights of the human person and the natural freedoms necessary for the development of the human vocation; (b) it requires the social well being and development of the group itself, i.e., whatever is needed to lead a truly human life such as food, clothing, health, work, education, and culture should be accessible to each one; (c) it requires peace, i.e., the stability and security of a just order (cf. CCC, 1907-09). These social conditions are obtained through social justice.

4   What is social justice?

Social justice is sometimes called the justice of the common good. It demands proportionate share in the fruits of economic cooperation and equitable distribution of the wealth of a nation among different social classes. It also imposes obligations of mutual relation on different social groups, e.g., the better to assist the poor so that they can live in a manner worthy of human beings. Social justice condemns such situations as "excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples" (GS, 29), the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, and excessive profits. 

5   What principles are the basis for the development of the social order?

The social order and its development "must be founded in truth, built on justice, and enlivened by love: it should grow in freedom towards a more humane equilibrium" (GS, loc. cit.). This means that individuals and groups should practice not just private morality but also social morality which governs the relationships between individuals and society. Some examples of the exercise of social morality would be the just payment of taxes, integrity and accountability in public office, rejection of graft and corruption, the care of the environment.

6   What is the political community?

The political community consists of persons, social groups and organizations, their institutions and structures that are necessary for directing or ordering society towards the common good. The common good is the full justification, meaning, and source of the political community's specific and basic right to exist (GS, 74). Within the political community is public or political authority which "must be exercised within the limits of the moral order and directed toward the common good."

7   What moral and religious principles guide politics?

The Bishops of the Philippines enumerated the following truths to guide politics (see PEPP, pp. 34-38): (a) human dignity and solidarity as the first principle of politics; (b) the common good as the goal of political activity; (c) authority and power as a divine trust for service; (d) autonomy and mutual collaboration between the Church and the political community.