Scholarly record

SOCIAL ACTION, COMMITMENT AND LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR - A SOLIDARITY FOR MIGRANTS

N. Vacaru

Abstract

Solidarity is a natural social requirement and represents the link that binds human beings together in mutually supportive relationships. Sometimes this link can break and people find themselves destitute, in difficulty, in loneliness, illness, rupture. To meet these needs, people are involved in charitable organizations, religious or not. Those people and organizations committed to the defense of human rights, for development and against poverty, for justice and peace, work for a culture of life. Christians certainly do not have the monopoly of solidarity, but for them solidarity is the translation of the Bible demands for love of neighbour. In this sense, the prosocial behaviour supposes the development of activities based on the sense of gratuitousness, the logic of giving and authentic solidarity, which puts us at the service of the poor and listening to the excluded. At the same time, the Bible mentions the necessary responsibility and the intrinsically religious character of welcoming the stranger and the poor. The social teaching of the Church pays attention to these new forms of poverty and fragility in which Christians are called to recognize the suffering Christ. According to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, the reception of migrants and refugees should give rise to compassion and generous solidarity: Christians are definitely called upon to help the migrant, although they must leave to the authorities responsible for life public to legislate for a healthy coexistence.

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