Recent crises provoke appeals to the common good. Can the structures and procedures of liberal democracies belong among Gaudium et Spes's conditions for human fulfilment? And are they to be respected even when they lead to undesirable outcomes? How can we integrate the notion of conflict as central to democratic politics, that is, a conflict which is not simply due to moral fault, or the inordinate pursuit of particular interests? The common good is not available as an already known quantity to determine correct solutions in conflict situations. Its core idea is heuristic, naming that which is being sought, but which is not yet known, although enough about it is known to be able to specify the programme for its discovery. Its two operative criteria are succinctly expressed in the themes of Populorum Progressio and Caritas in Veritate, concern for the development of every person and of the whole person.
