Community
Uniting communities is an essential part of our Augustinian charism, especially in our individualistic modern society.
Written by Fr. Joe McCormick, O.S.A. | Pastor, St. Bernard Parish | Homer Glen, IL
We need another capital campaign - a SOCIAL capital campaign.
For the past 25 years, social scientist Robert Putnam has studied connections between and among people in the United States, ever since his ground-breaking study, Bowling Alone. The results? Connections have been deteriorating, resulting in a significant increase in personal loneliness.
This trend towards loneliness has weakened the sense of community among people, threatening the strength of our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, and our country. Through his research, Putnam calls for a growth of "social" capital to renew our great nation.
While our American culture has been strong in promoting the rights of individuals, this positive thrust has often been conscripted by a brand of individualism that has fostered extreme ideologies and threatened the common good.
Social and moral issues get politicized. Opposing views get vilified and demonized rather than discussed, debated and respected as differences. Extremism is often nurtured by social media and 24/7 news outlets vying for audiences.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Putnam distinguished two types of the “social capital” we need.
First, ties that link you to people similar to yourself are called “bonding” social capital.
Second, “bridging” social capital refers to your ties to people different than you.
So, ties to people of a different generation or a different gender or a different religion or a different political belief - that’s “bridging” social capital.
While both of Putnam’s forms of social capital are important in keeping people from sliding into isolation and loneliness, there is a particular need today to foster the “bridging” social capital to help us deal with the threats of extremism and intolerance.
Putnam recognizes the power of faith communities for being able to nurture both types of social capital.
Within every Augustinian community there are multitudes of different types of people: men and women, young and old, Republicans, Democrats & Independents, liberals and conservatives, rich and poor, different ethnic groups, and so many other differences. Yet, we all share the same Catholic faith (which is so comforting).
We recognize and celebrate the glue of our faith that holds us together.
Our society, as a whole, needs to discover - or recover - the glue that holds us together.
So, yes, I do believe that we desperately need another capital campaign in these turbulent times, but one that raises this shared social capital among us. This is not uniformity, but is rather community. While much of God’s will is mystery, we do believe that God wills love and a sense of community among all his people.