The Religion & Culture Web Forum

September 2007

In Search of the Common Good:
The Catholic Roots Of American Liberalism

By Lew Daly
Senior Fellow, Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action

Respondents:
Joseph Bottum, Editor, First Things
Richard W. Garnett, University of Notre Dame
Thomas Zebrowski, University of Chicago

In this issue of the Web Forum, Lew Daly addresses the revival of “common good” language among Democrats, arguing that the concept is severely weakened when stripped of its religious—that is, Catholic—roots. He traces the development of progressive Catholic social thought and Catholic influence within the Democratic Party, particularly in the person of Msgr. John A. Ryan (1869-1945):

Ryan’s growing influence reflected a broader shift in Catholic teaching, reaching from Leo XIII to the more radical views of Pius XI. At the heart of this shift was an evolution in Catholic natural-law thinking…toward a more communitarian critique of the economic domination at the core of the liberal state…

This radicalization of Catholic thought…shared with the Settlement House movement and other social-reform movements a focus on winning practical legislation to protect working families. Yet without the transcendental moral perspective of Catholic teaching, the natural-right defense of business domination would not have been so dramatically weakened during the Progressive Age, as Franklin D. Roosevelt would implicitly acknowledge in an important speech toward the end of his first presidential campaign.

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