Held on 17 February, the first Mini Roundtable of The Common Good project exceeded expectations. The ‘mini’ format puts engagement front and centre with UD researchers and external community leaders engaging in open forum on critical issues. Professor Stephen Duckett set the agenda with a short account of the ways in which government contracts for social services can either enlarge or inhibit the roles of community agencies. Roundtable participants observed that the organisational ‘faith based’ goals of welfare agencies had in fact been seriously distorted by pressures to meet financial ‘bottom lines’. Collaborative links to home church communities had dropped away, faith based voices for justice become attenuated; while leadership groups increasingly lacked the basic theological training and knowledge of the ‘faith base’ meant to inform their role in society.
But the roundtable was far from gloom and doom. Historically different relationships with government by education and health providers have enabled more robust investments in their ‘faith bases’. While within the ‘welfare sector’ itself we heard of some programs being put in place in an effort to ensure that their ‘bottom lines’ are based first and foremost in the grace and vision of their founding communities. There was also a sense of a shift in the political wind whereby ‘multi faith’ issues are increasingly fuelling the need for a ‘post secular’ consensus on the Common Good in Australia. ‘Faiths’ matter again. The roundtable dealt in questions more than answers and the next question for the university community is where to from here?
The Common Good Project Advisory Group will continue to work with our roundtable participants and we would invite anyone interested in being involved to contact the project through Fr Bruce Duncan (bfjduncan@gmail.com).
The Common Good Project is an initiative committed to researching the principle of the common good in Australia. In particular, we explore what diverse religious traditions understanding of the common good can contribute to Australian society and social cohesion, policy priorities and new forms of social partnerships.
Catholic Theological College
St Athanasius College
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