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PHILADELPHIA – On this landscape rooted in faith, politics and the quest for the common good, 800 Catholics from around the nation gathered July 11 to 13 to refine and ratify a platform on Catholic social teaching aimed at capturing the attention of both parties during this critical election season and beyond.

The platform, finalized by the delegates to the Convention for the Common Good, and widely acknowledged as the first grassroots effort of its kind, urges candidates and elected officials to put the common good before narrow partisan agendas.

Built on the words of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity,” the document also draws significantly from the U.S. Bishop’s “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.”

It advocates Catholic social teaching on such issues as the economy, health care, immigration, environmental stewardship, war and a consistent culture of life.

Organizers, including Catholics and Alliance for the Common Good and NETWORK, a National Catholic social justice lobby, said more than 2,000 people in 40 states contributed to platform over several months. The non-partisan document will be sent to political candidates and parties.

A number of social justice advocates from the Trenton Diocese participated in the overall process and turned out for the actual convention including: Alice Kelsey and Georgian Court University professor Dr. Rumu DasGupta, both prominent advocates for the homeless in Ocean County; Tom Mahedy, St. Anselm Parish, Wayside, a member of Pax Christi who focuses on peace issues; Father Robert Schulze, diocesan director of the Office of Jail and Prison Ministry and Mary Ellen Blackwell, director of parish social ministry for Catholic Charities.

They see the event as part of an in¬creasing groundswell for a nationwide call to conscience from the Catholic community at large.

“It was a historic gathering of Catholics,” said Blackwell. “Catholics have never come together as a group to look at the issues and give them a Catholic voice. Being part of it is remarkable,” Blackwell said during a break in the Saturday session.

“This,” she said, “is the beginning of a chance to form a united Catholic conscience on social justice issues and call legislators and politicians to account for their conduct.”

People, she said, need to view social justice issues “not only from a local perspective but a national and global one. Whatever affects the world, affects us.”

The convention, with its wide ranging perspective, allowed contributors and delegates the chance to do that, said Blackwell.

Kelsey and Father Schulze echoed Blackwell.

“It will afford elected officials and candidates a lens through which to view what a sizeable portion of Catholics think on very difficult issues,” said Kelsey. “In this issue driven year, candidates will have to pause and reflect on the fact that 800 people gathered to pay attention to those issues, to work together in a group and to ask candidates to pay attention.”

Father Schulze took heart from the fact that so many organizations, lay and religious, were represented at the event.

“The significance of the conference was that it was a coming together for the first time of a broad landscape of the Catholic community in social justice. I think they succeeded. The many different players of religious, priests, peace groups, social justice advocates, they were all there to dialogue.

“This was a very important Catholic event,” Father Schulze said. “I think the networking and hopefully, the follow up will go along with that.” The use of websites and blogs to keep people informed as the issues develop will foster the process, he said.

The convention, held at the Sheraton Philadelphia Center City Hotel just across from the Basilica of SS.

Peter and Paul, the mother church of the Philadelphia Archdiocese featuredround-table type discussions on the issues, talks from speakers, including Sister Helen Prejean, the nation’s foremost death penalty opponent.

Though some felt the emphasis on abortion took second place to the death penalty in the life-issues section of the platform, the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania was among the exhibitors at the convention and Dougherty was applauded when he declared that as a Catholic, he was absolutely opposed to abortion.

With an eye toward this presidential year, Father Schulze said “I think (the Convention for the Com¬mon Good) raised awareness of the bishop’s Faithful Citizenship document.”

He said the Faithful Citizenship material distributed at the convention helped to “point out the issues that Catholics need to keep in mind as they vote. It has also taken the two presidential candidates and lined them up side by side and listed the issues to see where each stood.”

Father Schulze appreciated the fact that during the convention “it was stressed over and over many times that to be a good Catholic is to be a responsible political person. There’s an old saying that religion and politics don’t mix but that’s inaccurate. Politics calls us to a moral response and that was stressed.”

Mahedy called the convention the “first grassroots effort for the Catholic Church of its kind.”

He said he found the conference to be “very in¬spiring and challenging in the way it brought Catholic social teaching to the fore including options for the poor and vulnerable, rights and responsibilities, solidarity, care for God’s creation, dignity of work and rights of workers, right to life and dignity of the human person.

“I think it’s important to know that we’re called to study all of these issues and to engage at all levels so that we could make the Gospel come alive at every avenue,” said Mahedy.