'Solidarity' means thinking of people's needs, opposing 'throwaway culture,' Pope says
October 28, 2014
“Solidarity” means “thinking and acting in terms of community,” Pope Francis said in an October 28 address to a World Meeting of Popular Movements, organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Solidarity, the Pope continued, means more than occasional acts of generosity; it means working to remedy the fundamental causes of poverty, inequality, and injustice.
“It is not possible to tackle poverty by promoting containment strategies to merely reassure, rendering the poor ‘domesticated,’ harmless and passive,” the Pope said. He called for structural changes that would make opportunities available to all citizens. “It is strange,” the Pope remarked, “but if I talk about this, there are those who think that the Pope is Communist.”
Decrying the “throwaway culture” that sees no value in the young, the elderly, and the marginalized, the Pope said that an “idolatrous worship of money” has made people indifferent to their neighbors.
Pope Francis said that solidarity should also extend to care for the environment. “Creation is not our property, that we may exploit as we please,” he said; “far less so, the property of the few.”
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