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Solidarity

Solidarity is recognition of all people as our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.  It is not about just acts of charity.  It is not just about feeling sorry for those who have less, but actually suffering with our brothers and sisters.  Solidarity extends to all, regardless of nationality, religion, race, culture, sex, age, or any other divider.  All are equal.  We desire the good for the other, especially for human rights, such as freedom, food, drink, clothing, health care, housing, and work with just (family) wages.  Solidarity may call us to action and to acts of charity.  The action that is can lead us to could be fatal.  Solidarity binds us to the poor and the oppressed.  Solidarity is a life-long commitment.  Solidarity is an attitude towards the poor and oppressed.  Solidarity is about the cause of the poor and oppressed.  When any one of our brothers and sisters suffer, we are called to suffer with them. The principle of Solidarity teaches us that we are all one race, one family, and one Church.  Whoever is being effected in the world by negative pressures, is a brother or sister in distress.  We two often have the mindset of what is right in front of us, but the world, our family, is much bigger.  John Paul II stated, “To overcome today's individualistic mentality, a concrete commitment to solidarity and charity is needed, beginning in the family.”( 39. Centesumus Annus) We begin our process of solidarity within our own home, but it must extend outside the home to the farthest ends of the earth.  John XXIII stated, “The solidarity which binds all men together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.”( 157. Mater et Magistra)   To summarize John Paul II stated, "Solidarity helps us to see the 'other'-whether a person, people or nation-not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our 'neighbor,' a 'helper', to be made a sharer on a par with ourselves in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God" (39. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis.)

Solidarity - Bishop Lenidas Proano (Ecuador, S.A.)

To always hold one's ears attentive to the cry pain of others and listen to their plea for help is solidarity.  To always hold one's eyes and ears attentive to the ocean in search of a cast away in danger is solidarity.  To feel as one's own the suffering of a brother or sister near or far; to make ones own the anguish of the poor is solidarity.  To become the voice of the humble, to uncover injustice and evil, to denounce the unjust and the evil doer is solidarity.  To allow one's self to carry message full of hope, love, and peace, until it squeezes the hand of a brother or sister is solidarity.  To transform one's self into the messenger of a sincere and fraternal embrace that one nations to other nations is solidarity. To share the dangers of the struggle to in injustice and freedom, risking everything with love, even life is solidarity.  To surrender one's self for love, even one's life is the greatest test of friendship: TO LIVE AND DIVE WITH JESUS CHRIST IS SOLIDARITY.