The Common Good
Twenty-five years ago, the bishops of England and Wales wrote The Common Good. a statement on politics and economics that was to provoke fury among Conservative politicians and commentators - and would raise concerns among many Catholics, including Cardinal Basil Hume.
The Common Good was to be a statement of guidance to Catholic voters, and the air was thick with suggestions and demands on the subject of abortion from people who wanted a hard line. But the bishops didn’t want to back themselves into an impossible position. SPUC was lobbying hard for such a statement. The bishops did not want to see the next general election turn into a referendum on abortion, not least because they would have lost it. But they also wanted to make it clear they were robust defenders of the sanctity of human life from conception onwards. So The Common Good twice says that a general election is not the same as a single -issue referendum – a line the bishops have stuck to ever since and should engage their MP in a dialogue in abortion.


