Global Solidarity

Rather than presenting tonights group discussion of my next paper, I'm going to post some more material from my last Saturday class on Global Solidarity. One of the common themes, within the eight themes of Catholic Social Teaching, is human dignity. It might be considered to be one of the foundational themes, and it is the basis for the Church’s teaching about the death penalty which was part of a previous post, called Restoritive Justice. A hierarchy of basic needs includes self-actualization, esteem, belonging or love, safety, and physiological needs. From a human dignity perspective, it’s obvious that for many people in the world there is a lack of basic sanitation, safe drinking water, adequate housing, health care, and education. Solidarity can transform the world, which is to say, in solidarity the world can be transformed; after all, “we are all one human family”.

The Pastoral plan developed in 1998 includes living out Catholic Social Teaching as a ministry by involving youth and lay ministry. The circle of justice which includes restorative justice, respect for life, economic justice, global solidarity, justice for immigrants, and environmental justice, are all important aspects of human dignity. A Deacon’s primary goal is to “go out into the community”, and in the liturgy we are to be transformed and sent out into the world to share and to serve each other. One part of the virtue of responsible citizenship is participation in political life. Obviously the Catholic Church is not a self-improvement society; helping people in need is more than helping other Catholics, but we can begin by developing an educational program for our Parish.

The liturgy of the Eucharist is what drives us to Global Solidarity by acknowledging the works in progress while still acknowledging the pain. We have the tools to live out a life of compassion. Ask someone from Catholic Relief Services to come and speak with your large or small group. The Rice Bowl program is not just another collection, it is a faith building process, an education program, and a great Lenten participation. Fair Trade programs originated with Catholic Relief Services. Coffee is traded worldwide, making it the second largest global product, and CRS created the Equal Exchange Coop to provide fair returns to independent farmers. We should work to convince our parish to use Fair Trade products such as those found at the Interfaith Store at the Equal Exchange web site, www.equalexchange.com. Buying fair trade products is not about having stuff, it’s about raising consciousness. Human trafficking is the criminal side of exploiting the poor. Parishes are being asked to teach parishioners “what to look for”. For instance, did you know that street corner sellers are quite often trafficked labor without options? This is such a problem that there is a Free to Work app that will show you what percentage of slave labor is used to created or make the product you are interested in.

Two of the many Catholic programs working to further the respect of human dignity are Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. 95% of donations to Catholic Relief Services go directly to services while the last 5% of donations goes to overhead. The world that God created is now out of balance, and these two programs, as well as others, reflect our Catholic values by working to solve the immediate concerns of the needy. The answer to the question, "How do I change the world?", is to understand that God’s compassion can only reach the world through our efforts. It is not just about charity because we are all part of the same Body, and the Path of Caritas (God’s Love for the world) includes taking care of those who are less fortunate. Catholic charitable works and social justice programs are simply two of the ways to achieve Love in Action, as found in Jesus' discourse and recorded in Matthew 25:31-46. It may seem like an overwhelming task, but all that is required in building the Kingdom of God here and now is that we do what we can.