The work and mission of ‘Aid to the Church in need’ is underpinned by a spirit of solidarity with persecuted and suffering brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world. This spirit is essential for the mission of ACN to be properly understood and maintained.

By Fr. Billy Swan

Religious sisters in Syria. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

In the late 1980’s, the word ‘Solidarity’ was the name given to the Trade Union resistance movement in Poland that eventually lead to historical social change in that country. These changes happened non-violently and led to a new spring-time of hope and social unity in the native land of St John Paul II. Solidarity led to peace and unity. It can do the same today.

Bishop Angelo Moreschi in Ethiopia. Bishop Angelo Moreschi, known locally as Abba Angelo, spent most of his life in Ethiopia. He passed away in March 2020. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

‘Solidarity’ is one of the four main principles of the Church’s Social Teaching (the other three being the common good, the dignity of the human person and subsidiarity). It is the principle that gives expression to the social dimension of the human person. We are social beings, made for communion with others and God. Our lives are interconnected whether we admit it or not. We communicate, we listen, we give, we receive, we know others and they know us. Through modern communications, we instantly know what is happening to people all over the world. This is the age of globalization when the world is becoming smaller and we realize we are part of a single human family. In recent years, we see this challenge with migration in places like Europe. Single countries on their own simply cannot cope. There has to be a global response. There has to be solidarity.

As a moral virtue, solidarity begins with empathy and compassion but doesn’t end there. Drawing from the experience of his native Poland, St John Paul II wrote: ‘Solidarity is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all’ (Sollicitudo Socialis, 38).

Solidarity, therefore, always leads to action and practical steps to share the burdens of others. These ‘others’ include all who share this world with us - that is, everyone. In the words of the Catechism, it calls for ‘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’ (CCC, 1941). Yet this solidarity is also between generations, those past and those yet unborn. That is why the issue of climate change is so important because greater measures of conservation are for the benefit of future generations and not just our own. In the words of Pope Francis: ‘the earth is lent to each generation, to be handed on to the generation that follows’ (Fratelli Tutti, 178). Solidarity stretches us to embrace the past and the future.

Aftermath of attack on the Cathedral of Managua, Nicaragua. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

This principle of solidarity is not just a horizontal or social value. It is grounded in the mystery of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. When God sent his Son into the world as a human being, divinity united itself in solidarity with all humanity: ‘For by his incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each individual’ (Gaudium et Spes, 22). When Jesus waded into the river Jordan to be baptized by John, he did so not because he had to but because he wanted to and to show solidarity with sinners whom he had come to save. When he died in agony on the cross, Jesus descended into solidarity with all who are crushed by suffering and who needed hope most. For us Christians, here is the spirituality of solidarity that finds its foundation in the life of Jesus Himself. What a wonderful mystery to ponder! How great the love of Christ is – a love that lowers itself and empties itself in order to be with others in a solidarity that changes and gives new life.

For us disciples of Jesus, being immersed in his love, moves us into new spaces and closer to new people. It pushes us to ‘bear with one another’s burdens’ (Gal. 6:2) and to move out of our buffered selves as we adopt a spirituality that embraces the whole Church and the whole world. For ‘if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together’ (1 Cor. 12:26). Here is the spirituality that animates the members and supporters of ‘Aid to the Church in Need’. It is the spirituality that allows the situations of suffering Christians to impact on us and that facilitates our closeness to them.

Aid to the Church in Need sponsored reconstruction work in Iraq. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

An inspiring example of this principle at work is St. Maximillian Kolbe (1894-1941). He was sent to Auchwitz concentration camp during World War II and volunteered to take the place of a married man with a family who was sentenced to death by starvation by the Nazis. During his time in the bunker, Maximillian saw it as an opportunity to be with, support, encourage and pray with the other prisoners who were sentenced to death with him. Out of the ten people left to starve, he was the last to die. Instead of complaining about his new circumstances, Maximillian saw it as a time to be in solidarity with others and offer them the saving mercy of Christ when they needed it. The death of this caring man was postponed until he gently ushered all his condemned friends through the door of death first.

Aid to the Church in Need sponsored food distribution in Lebanon. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

We might not be called to heroic virtue in extreme circumstances like this, but we are called to be people of similar solidarity. We are called to be people committed to solidarity as an expression of ‘political love, social charity and social friendship’ as Pope Francis describes it in Fratelli Tutti (Chapters 180-183). This call is all the more important in an increasingly plural world. This can be practiced by us in simple and ordinary ways. So, for example, if we feel isolated and lonely then we have entered into the space where thousands of people have been before us. If we get sick and end up in hospital, we join the company of those we forgot about when we were well. If we fast on Fridays, then we enter the company of millions of people who go hungry every day. If I am waiting in a line at the supermarket, I am in solidarity with everyone else who buys food for their families. If I hear of a church being burned in Nigeria or Pakistan on the news, then solidarity urges me to take that story into my prayer, sit with it for a while, feel the suffering of those effected and ask myself ‘how can I respond?’ Here is solidarity played out daily, moving us from our comfort zones, being in communion with new people and challenging a globalization of indifference where people are kept apart in their own social and political groups.

Ultimately, solidarity is an expression of love. As Christ moved close to us to be in solidarity with us, so too we bear his love and saving power to the people to whom he sends us. As St Catherine of Siena pithily puts it: ‘Love does not stay idle’ (Letter T82). It moves us into new spaces to draw close to the people who need that love and who will be saved by it.

Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy, with French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet who widely reported the case. (Credit: François Thomas)

As political and religious leaders call for social unity at this time of pandemic, let this unity not be a thin veneer that covers deeper cracks. The ‘Solidarity’ movement in Poland in the last century was more than a name of a movement or group. It was a people imbued with the spirit of solidarity that saw others as more than just subjects of the same law and even fellow country men and women. Rather it was a spirit that recognized others as brothers and sisters who are part of my life and whose needs concerned me. At this time of global pandemic and uncertainty, may we Christians step up to our vocation to be people of unity that is the fruit of our commitment to solidarity. As we move forward, united we stand and in God we trust.