Solidarity requires individual involvement, not state programs, Pope says

Pope Benedict XVI defined solidarity as "a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to everyone," during a May 19 audience with members of Catholic charitable groups.

Because everyone is obligated by the demands of solidarity, the Holy Father said, "it cannot therefore be merely delegated to the state." He stressed the need for individual involvement with those in need.

"Your activity must be animated by charity," the Pope said. "This means learning to see with the eyes of Christ and giving others much more than what is externally necessary." That "much more," the Pope explained, is the gift of love, which bureaucratic programs cannot provide.

Christian solidarity, the Pope said, relies on "gratuitousness"--the willingness to give even when there is no obligation to do so. "Gratuitousness cannot be bought on the market, or established by law," he said. Yet "today it is clear that without gratuitousness, there can be no justice in the first place."

Pope Benedict said that the best example of gratuitous love can be seen in healthy family life, in which each individual willingly gives of himself for the benefit of others. He reminded his audience that in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate he had suggested applying the logic of family life to society at large.

I like everything that this Pope writes. He is one of the most brilliant intellectual living today.

We need to go to our parishes and educate the committees ourselves. It is our duty to make them understand the evil of Marxism/Socialism. The Pope writes about how evil Marxist ideology is..... The Catholic Church should revile all “social justice” as described by Marxists (government forced charity which can never be charity). Subsidiarity is key.

"This means learning to see with the eyes of Christ and giving others much more than what is externally necessary." That "much more," the Pope explained, is the gift of love, which bureaucratic programs cannot provide. "

In my experience it's people who in reality are completely devoid of Christian love for anyone other than themselves who want to have the State take care of everyone. Even if such folks claim to be Christian and talk the talk, they obviously don't have as much faith in Christ as they have in the State.

JMHO

I am a senior citizen and also a genealogist. I always heard stories of how my maternal grandmother helped poor widows who came to her door by giving them money, food, and sometimes clothes as well. My Mom told me that her mother would say, “I remember how it felt to be very poor, and so I must help these women.”

Only a week ago I was visiting an older sister, and she told me a story that I had never heard before. Our Dad was a dentist. When he died at age 51 years, several rural families from our local parish came to the wake and told my Mother that my Dad had done all the dental work for the family without charging them, as they were poor. They were concerned about how their kids would get their teeth fixed in the future.

This story reminded me about how, when I was about 3 and 1/2 years old, my Dad came home one day with a cute puppy which we named Kippy. He was a mix of collie and some breed of shepherd. We absolutely loved that dog and my Mom especially was close to Kippy as he never once piddled in the house. I remember Dad said he got the puppy from one of his patients.

Stories of this type of charity, were rampant before the 1960’s. Lots of professionals (doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc.) received payment with chickens, puppies, etc. That was the era of person to person charity. We still have that spirit in the “hands-on” charities like food shelves, community meals, Salvation Army, etc.

Many liberals are snobs. They often do not want to get their hands dirty, and would rather raise taxes on other people, especially those nasty business people. That makes them feel ‘real good’!

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