The Thomas More College Milk Street Society was honored to welcome Pater Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist. to campus for a lecture on President’s Day. “It was a rare honor to host Pater Edmund. Frankly, I had only dreamed that our little lecture circuit could host a figure of such importance. But thanks to many converging factors, as well as the patronage of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, that dream became a reality,” said Society president Jonathan Wright ’23.
Pater Edmund’s lecture, entitled “The Primacy of the Common Good,” began with an overview of two different ways we “commonly think of the common good” and ended with an exhortation toward the “supernatural common good,” where “the common goods of earthly polities must be directed to the most final common good.”
“Pater Edmund is both a great mind and a great teacher,” stated Society faculty advisor Dr. Denis Kitzinger. “In his thoughtful talk, he explained fundamental truths in a beautifully simple way. This is not an easy task. To grasp the common good, the hierarchy of common goods, the difference between private and common goods, as well as the consequent order of authorities—between Church and State—is crucially important, always but especially nowadays. It is important for us as human beings, as Catholics, and as citizens. It orients us in our lives, judgments, and choices. His talk, then, was a great gift. It continues to enrich and stimulate conversations amongst faculty and students.”
Pater Edmund is a monk of Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Austria and a lecturer at the pontifical Pope Benedict XVI Philosophical-Theological University. He is the son of theologian Michael Waldstein, who delivered a faculty seminar at the College last summer.
For further reading:
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