On this Australia Day weekend, it seems very fitting that we encourage our wonderful readers and supporters to consider attending our forthcoming interactive conference day and dinner, which is dedicated to the topic of “Christianity and the Common Good” (book here).
We are aware that the notion of “the common good” can seem very vague and a bit obscurely feel-good rather than being as it is – a shorthand term for a very important aspect of human flourishing.
This “integral” vision of the human truth recognises the inherently social and God-orientated ends for which we are made. Because “the common good” is such a foundational element of our Christian understanding, we believe it deserves at least a day to consider it in the round.
We welcome all our wider Thomas More Centre alumni, our readers, supporters and other socially active Christians and people of goodwill to join us and our inspirational speakers to share an exploration of this topic. We welcome people from different age groups too.
Don’t we all in these times need a civic discussion that is, well, civil – and at the same time is imaginative, faith-filled, intelligent and accessible?
(Francis) Russell Hittinger III
One of the most helpful modern contributors to the discussion on the Catholic foundations and understanding of “the common good” is Russell Hittinger, an eminent scholar, American author, legal philosopher and theological scholar, one of an impressive faculty of scholars at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America.
Hittinger contributed to a fresh reflection upon natural law with his book, The First Grace: Rediscovering the Natural Law in a Post-Christian World (2009). In this book, he takes into account the undermining of the metaphysical foundations underneath Western thought and culture, and re-proposes the natural law as foundational to moral freedom and as a wisdom grounded in God’s providential and ongoing engagement with Creation and His creatures.
Hittinger was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as an ordinarius in the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (2009–2019), and he contributed to articulating a synthesis of Pope Benedict XVI’s deep Augustinian/Patristic vision of social theology and that of the Thomist tradition.
His most recent collection of essays is On The Dignity of Society (2025), which is a great resource for our planning of the forthcoming TMC conference.
In the essays that make up this new book, Hittinger dives deeply into his metaphysical concerns and the more recent thoughts on essential communities: family, polity and the Church found in the work of Yves Simon and Joseph Ratzinger, amongst others. Like Alasdair MacIntyre, who we featured last week, Hittinger explains that each of these rings of community are not at war with others but have their own dignity, ends and role in building up a genuine common good.
Echoing and bringing into the new century and decade, Hittinger writes:
“The different orders need each other, and one cannot replace the others. They exist in themselves as true societies, but exist also for the other dignified orders. It is not sufficient for human happiness to dwell in only one society.”
TMC Conference Outline
We are very honoured to be hosting this conference with the involvement and blessing of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Australia.
TMC is finalising the program, which will target the discussion of the day into five distinct sessions, three of which will feature our guest speakers, a panel of respondents and the opportunities for discussion and questions by participants.
The day will conclude with the celebration of Byzantine Vespers (in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul), and then drinks and dinner with former prime minister the Hon. Tony Abbott AC.
The Program – Simple Outline
- Session I: PRAYER AND LITURGY AS THE FOUNDATION OF THE COMMON GOOD
- 10am – 11.30am
- LUNCH: 12 – 1pm
- Session II: THE COMMON GOOD AND THE POLIS
- 1pm – 2.30pm
- Session III: THE COMMON GOOD IS FOR EVERYONE: How to be involved
- 3pm – 4.30pm
- Session IV: SUNG BYZANTINE VESPERS in the Ukrainian Cathedral
- 5pm
- Session V: DRINKS & DINNER
- 6.30pm
- “Common Good and the Commonwealth” by the Hon. Tony Abbott AC
Please join us in prayer and with your participation and support.
Anna Krohn
Executive Director
Thomas More Centre
