Our earlier posts on subsidiarity and the common good imply an obligation which we bear — to participate in the development of society and the human person. We cannot refuse this obligation to participate by withdrawing from public discourse and life.
A strong moral presence is needed in public life to ensure that public administration will be the result of a shared responsibility of each individual with an eye to the common good.
Our obligation to participate in the areas of work, economic activity, culture and politics is one that we must fulfill consciously with the common good foremost in our minds.
Catholic social doctrine states that participation in community life one of the greatest aspirations of the citizen and one of the pillars of all democratic orders and one of the guarantees of the permanence of the democratic system. The right and obligation to participation is abridged in totalitarian and dictatorial systems, which is one reason the Church opposes such social and political systems whenever possible.
For a more extensive discussion of this, go to the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Nos. 189-191.
