Elections are essential to democracy, but they are not the most crucial element. Because of the intense media focus, the election horse race draws our attention for a month or two every four years (or less). The media, for its part, offers primarily a negative focus on elections, critiquing every promise made by the parties and scrounging the pasts of candidates in search of some ancient faux pas that would make them ineligible to be elected. When was the last time you heard a media commentator declare, “Heh! That’s a great idea” in response to some party’s platform plank? Or, “She’s a candidate who exudes integrity”?

Under the relentless scrutiny of the media, political parties hedge their bets. They offer baubles to attract votes but do not stray far from the safest path. Details of how those baubles will be implemented are sketchy since the more detail revealed, the larger the target for opponents and the media to attack.

Do any of those seeking our vote have a grand vision for Canada? If so, they aren’t telling. 

However, there is a grand vision, and it’s called Catholic social teaching. It too is short on details, but that’s because it has universal application. What Catholic social teaching offers are principles that respect the dignity of the human person. 

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published in 2004, offers five principles: the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, participation and solidarity. Underlying everything is not law but love. The Compendium applies those principles to seven topics: the family, human work, the economy, the political community, the international community, the natural environment and the promotion of peace.

One might object to Catholic social teaching as the basis for society’s development because it is Catholic. Ours is a pluralistic society, and no religion should dictate society’s direction. However, the point of these principles is not that they are Catholic but catholic. They are universal principles that can be agreed upon by all.

How we implement them is another matter. Some people try to squish Catholic social teaching to fit their favourite ideology. They want to make it appear that if you are a real Catholic, you will support their political party or ideology. But that has it backward. The five principles are guides for all political parties and movements. When those parties fall short, as they all do, the principles offer a framework for a reassessment. 

A problem with Catholic social teaching today is that it has become sequestered in the universities. Roughly 60 to 100 years ago, the Church’s social teaching was alive and put to work by community organizers.

What happened? There is no one answer, but a large part of any answer is the decline of communities and churches in society. Western societies have become more individualistic, and the role of community-based organizations has shrunk.

Modern technological societies need strong governments, strong corporations and small local businesses. Most importantly, they need citizen involvement through local organizations. Without citizen involvement, democracy becomes a pale shadow of what it can be. Grassroots organizations address the needs of and advocate for the sick, the elderly, the poor, the new immigrants, and others who populate our neighbourhoods. 

We expect governments to handle these needs. They can provide universal social benefits to boost the incomes of the poor as well as important services such as home care. But government programs offer a one-size-fits-all approach when disadvantaged people all have unique needs. Organizations such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul respond to the person. They are living examples of how justice is rooted in charity.

The famous community organizer Saul Alinsky, an agnostic Jew, found that Catholic parishes were the ideal institution for working with the poor and low-paid workers. First, the Catholic Church has a clear conception of the common good that the political left cannot provide. Second, parishes are groupings of people brought together by strong values and committed relationships rather than self-interest. Performing corporal works of mercy and advocacy are part of the parish’s mission.

“Participation in community life is . . . one of the pillars of all democratic orders and one of the major guarantees of the permanence of the democratic system,” according to the Compendium. By engaging in groups that strive to build the common good, we make ours a better and more democratic society. More than that, we also fulfill our personal destinies by upholding the immeasurable dignity of others.