Saturday 6 March 2010

Choosing the Common Good

You may have seen reports during the week about the launch of a new document from the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. The document, Choosing the Common Good, was launched at a press conference on Wednesday. The pictures here are from the Bishops' Conference Flickr site and are (c) Mazur/catholicchurch.co.uk

Archbishop Nichols of Westminster and Archbishop Smith of Cardiff, chair and vice-chair of the conference, led the proceedings. The Archbishop of Westminster has also written the foreword to the document, which states that its purpose is to promote the good of all and a greater understanding of Catholic thinking, ahead of both the General Election and the papal visit.

The document deals with some of the key issues concerning the Church in our country today: the practice of virtue, the value of human life, globalisation and ecology, migration, marriage and the family, community cohesion, the consequences of the economic crisis and the right and duty of faith communities to make a contribution to the life of the country. It's a fairly concise document - about 20 pages in total - and we are encouraged to read it over the coming weeks. The full text can be downloaded from the Bishops' Conference website (click here).