| Summary: | This thesis offers an extended theological reflection on the notion of the common good, in light of the decimation of the world’s largest cod fishery in the waters off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Drawing on Church and local political history, this thesis argues that the theological notion of the common good would have provided the theological perspective for Catholic Church-local leaders to see this socio-economic-ecological crisis as a spiritual crisis, a one which summoned the active engagement of the Church. The destruction of the northern cod fishery in the latter half of the twentieth century is considered through the lens of David Hollenbach’s reinterpreted notion of the common good in Catholic social tradition. Hollenbach’s common good re-envisioned, offers a way of articulating and reflecting on the theological-ethical insufficiency of the local Church’s response to this socio-economic-ecological-political-spiritual tragedy. Despite the long-standing tradition of the Catholic Church to interpret, define and advance the needs of the common good of all humanity, that Vatican II had happened, and was followed by more than fifteen years of Canadian Catholic Bishops social justice statements, Newfoundland Church leaders in the late twentieth century, did not see it appropriate to become involved in this immense political, socio-economic-ecological, cultural-spiritual travesty of justice. Hollenbach’s common good reinterpreted presses this Church-local to be the people of God, and awaken to the spirit of aggiornamento, affirmed at Vatican II. Active commitment to Catholic social teachings on respect for human dignity, love, solidarity, sharing, and mutual responsibility, can only empower this Church by the sea to unite its aspirations with the needs of the common good of these maritime people. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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