Costly abuse of the common good: the "structures of sin"

25. Ignorance of the common good goes hand in hand with the exclusive and sometimes excessive pursuit of particular goods such as money, power or reputation, when viewed as absolutes to be sought for their own sakes: namely as idols. This is what created the "structures of sin"(³⁷), all those places and circumstances in which habits are perverse and which demand proof of heroism on the part of all new arrivals if one is to avoid acquiring such habits.

The "structures of sin" are numerous and vary in scope. Some are worldwide—for example the mechanisms and the conduct which creates hunger—while others are on a much smaller scale but equally capable of creating imbalances making it more difficult to do good to the people affected by them. These "structures" always generate high costs in human terms and are the places in which the common good is destroyed.

Their costly and degrading effects in economic terms, are less often commented upon. One could cite a number of striking examples of this(³⁸). Development is not only hampered by ignorance and incompetence. There are also many large-scale "structures of sin" which deliberately steer the goods of the earth away from their true purpose, that of serving the good of all, toward private and sterile ends in a process which spreads contagiously.

It is obvious that the human being cannot subject and dominate the earth effectively while adoring the false gods of money, power and reputation considered to be ends in themselves and not means for serving each man and women and all humanity. Greed, pride and vanity blind those who fall prey to them, eventually preventing them from realising the limitations of their perceptions and the self-destructive nature of their actions.

In view of the universal destination of goods, money, power and reputation must be sought so as to:

a) create the means of production of goods and services which will have a truly useful social purpose and promote the common good;

b) share with the deprived, who embody the need for the common good in the eyes of all men and women of goodwill. The deprived are the living witnesses of the lack of this common good. For Christians, the deprived are indeed the cherished Children of God, who comes to visit us through them and in them.

Pursuing these riches as an absolute good in themselves, robs them wholly or partially of utility for the common good. The world economic system is: globally mediocre — in comparison with the peak performances achieved in some countries for quite considerable periods of time, so costly in human terms (when it functions properly and where it does not function at all), paying dearly for bad habits and imposing a veritable moral yoke on people.

Conversely, as soon as groups of men and women begin working together in order to take due account of the need to serve the whole community, and each individual member of it, remarkable developments can be achieved. People previously deemed rather useless become outstanding for the quality of their services, and a positive effect gradually improves the material, psychological and moral conditions of their lives. This is really the "obverse" of the "structures of sin". One might call them the "structures of the common good" which pave the way to the "civilisation of man"(³⁹). Our experience in such situations, gives some idea of what a world might be if people were more concerned about the common interests and the fate of each man and woman, in all they do and in the exercise of all their responsibilities