Philosophical roots of solidarity in Catholic social teaching

A term tossed around too commonly, “solidarity” means pragmatic pulling together against seemingly insurmountable odds. The “little miracles” the Catholic Relief Services video refers to mentions the “grace of God” as the force that binds human beings and communities together. Solidarity is the result of the grace of God working through committed people who recognize that there are no divisions between people, tribes, or countries. All human beings are part of a collective body, and we have responsibilities to one another.
Solidarity is too often used to create segregated groups, as when referring to “ethnic solidarity,” (Pagnucco & Gichure, 2014, p. 161). The Catholic Social Teaching CST) perspective shows that there is only one type of solidarity: the global unity among disparate people. Solidarity is also not a static state of affairs resulting in artificial designations of identity. Rather, solidarity is about action and relationship. Pagnucco & Gichure (2014) define solidarity as relationships based on “interdependence and unity...and mutual moral obligations,” (p. 161). A shared identity comes not necessarily from nationality or creed, but from identity as a morally conscious human being.
It is also possible to maintain one’s connections to ethnic or other subcultures and communities while remaining part of the human whole. The theory of “bounded solidarity” presumes that small-scale identities such as ethnic solidarity will transcend one’s commitment to the human race (Pagnucco & Gichure, 2014). Commitments are made to one’s community, and all relationships are “bound” to their geographic or ethnic alliances according to the “bounded solidarity” perspective (Pagnucco & Gichure, 2014, p. 164). A more expansive, albeit idealistic, view of solidarity is the “Cosmopolitan Solidarity.” Cosmopolitan solidarity is a model that recognizes unity amid diversity.
In the global community, cosmopolitan solidarity is the only possible outlook or method of overcoming shared problems and obstacles. The environment is one of the most obvious issues that showcases the importance of cosmopolitan solidarity. Even when environmental degradation can be traced to localized causes or problematic policies of single regions or nations, the results of environmental degradation and pollution are felt on the international stage. Nature knows no political boundaries. Instead of playing the blame game, people need to work together to come up with mutually beneficial solutions. The parable of the Good Samaritan embodies the principle of solidarity. It does not matter what tribe a person belongs to; we all have a moral obligation to intervene and to help when we can.
If we know that nongovernmental organizations have projects that succeed in saving lives, we do have a moral obligation to support them in whatever way we can. In some cases, we support those organizations best with financial donations. In other ways, we can contribute our time or effort by raising awareness or volunteering. We can choose organizations that work on specific or localized causes that are meaningful to us in our bounded communities, or we can choose organizations and causes that have a global scope. When we work together towards solving local problems, we are not taking away from the ability of nonprofit organizations to serve the global community. In fact, we often do need to clean up our own backyards before we can be in a position to tidy up the neighborhood. Focusing on local causes represents the view known as “partial cosmopolitan solidarity,” which can blend the best interests of local and global communities (Pagnucco & Gichure, 2014, p. 168). After all, local stakeholders are better equipped to understand how the members of their community will respond to specific interventions, and are in a much better position of actually effecting change than people who are from another place and less familiar with local contingencies.
References
Catholic Relief Services (2010). General awareness video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQECXbWLV-0
Pagnucco, R. & Gichure, P. (2014). Solidarity: A Catholic perspective. In Sullivan, S.C. & Pagnucco, R. (Eds.). A Vision of Justice. (pp. 161-181). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.