Santiago, Chile, Aug 20, 2009 / 17:27 pm
The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Chile, Bishop Alejandro Goic, called on Chileans this week to live out solidarity following the example of St. Alberto Hurtado. “Living out charity and promoting social justice,” he entreated, are “vital and indispensable consequences of following Christ.”
During Mass at the Shrine of Father Hurtado, the bishop said solidarity with those most in need “should not be limited to campaign slogans or to a sort of ‘social tourism’ in which we occasionally spend some time with the poor.”
“Authentic solidarity implies two dimensions: on the one hand, human love and mercy, compassion and tenderness, especially towards those who suffer most; and on the other, the necessary search for the transformation of social, political and economic conditions through the responsible exercise of our rights and duties as citizens,” the bishop said. “Because, in the words of St. James, faith without works is dead,” he added.
Bishop Goic taught that solidarity is learned at home, cultivated in schools and applied at work. “Solidarity cannot flower for just one day, be a passing fad or sensibility limited to certain dates, certain campaigns, tragedies or disasters,” he said.