Catholic Social Teaching Principles February, 2000
The Principle of Solidarity
Article by Fr. Byron
Lesson Plans
Primary (K-2)
Intermediate (3-5)
Middle School (6-8)
Secondary (9-12)
Facilitator's Guide
Background/Supporting Quotations: From Jeremiah 22:3
"Thus says the Lord: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victim from the hand of the oppressor. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place."
From Genesis 4:9
"Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' He answered, 'I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?' "
From Leviticus 25 : 35-38
"When one of your fellow countrymen is reduced to poverty and is unable to hold out beside you, extend to him the privileges of an alien or a tenant so that he can continue to live with you. Do not exact interest from your countryman either in money or in kind, but out of fear of God let him live with you. You are to lend him neither money at interest nor food at profit. I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Chanaan and to be your God."
From Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions (1998)
"Catholic social teaching proclaims that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers wherever they live. We are one human family…learning to practice the virtue of solidarity means learning that 'loving our neighbor' has global dimensions in an interdependent world." (p.5)
From Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992)
"Solidarity is an eminently Christian virtue. It practices the sharing of spiritual goods even more than material ones." (#1948)
"Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity; solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this." (#1941)
"The equal dignity of human persons requires the effort to reduce excessive social and economic inequalities. It gives urgency to the elimination of sinful inequalities." (#1947)
From The Catholic Northwest Progress, publication of the Archdiocese of Seattle, 2/3/2000, article by Rev. William Byron, SJ, "The Principle of Solidarity."
From the encyclical, Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World), Second Vatican council, 1965
"The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in an any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ." (#1)
"The solidarity, which binds all people 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)