Review article
Mercy and solidarity: from charity to institutional justice
Zdenko Spajić
orcid.org/0000-0001-7194-8374
; University of Sarajevo - Catholic Theological Faculty in Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
The question of mercy and solidarity can be seen from different aspects. From the perspective of the Social Doctrine of the Church, this question substantially refers to the problem of wealth distribution and poverty. Through the entire history of the Church, charitable giving has been a response to the conditions of poverty that surround us. Even though charitable giving, as a form of Christian love, is a
valid principle of Church teaching and practice, in the past less attention was paid to the causes of poverty: emphasis was placed on the praxis of charitable giving in a context of social inequality. With the evolution of its Social Doctrine, the Church has increasingly sought to understand the causes of poverty and to strive for a system shift that will reduce inequality. Without doubt, the causes lie not only in individual poverty, but in the way that modern society functions, specifically prevailing economic mechanisms that generate poverty and increase inequality between a wealthy minority and an impoverished majority. Charity, while it is advisable and necessary, is not a sufficient response to this phenomenon in the contemporary world, characterized by globalization processes and a high rate of mutual interdependency of individuals and states. The article affirms that solidarity is the appropriate response of the Church, intended not as simple compassion for the poorest victims but as an active principle in the regulation of human relations, directed toward institutional structuring in order to achieve social justice and the common good. The article begins by analyzing the relationship between poverty and its causes and moves from there to an analysis of Church teaching on charity and its connection to the virtue of justice, concluding with a consideration of solidarity, asking if this social virtue can be institutionalized in contemporary society.
Keywords
mercy; charitable giving; poverty; solidarity; subsidiarity; social state.
Hrčak ID:
260575
URI
Publication date:
1.7.2017.
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