July 17, 2008

LIVE BLOGCAST: Health Care & the Common Good: Dr. Edmund Pellegrino (continued)

Mark 1:34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

"We have one virtue, that is the virtue of charity." Dr. Edmund Pellegrino

"With ethics alone you'll neither satisfy God nor fulfill your intrinsic possibilities. God is the Holy One. Goodness is one of the names of him whose essence is inexpressible. And he desires not only obedience to the commands of the 'abstract good,' but also your personal affection. More, he wants you to risk love and and the new existence that springs from it. Only in love is genuine fulfillment of the ethical possible." The Lord by Romano Guardini
First order question of a good society, obligations to see that people have what they need.

The notion that we are interconnected as human beings, we have responsibilities to each other. What happens to one happens to the rest of us. Whenever we can do something to recognize that we are members of a conjoined society, that is why the the common good is so crucially important.

Closing statement: Do we want to be passive bystanders? Do we not want to contribute to the relief of those who suffer? Is the picture we give....do we want to be seen as doing the Pontius Pilate act and not taking responsibility for others? What kind of society do we want to be?

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