commands good and forbids evil, and to locate it in the realm of
morality. Thus, attitudes opposed to the will of God and love of
neighbor such as excessive desire for profit, the thirst for power, selfish
economic decisions, etc., become ‘moral evils’ whose theological
recognition calls for conversion.
The theme of conversion echoes his call in Centesimus Annus for moral
renovation as the first and most important task for societal
transformation. He argued that the elimination of unjust structures
alone cannot change the internal dispositions and attitudes of the
human person. Thus, the pope insists that the place to begin is the
human heart, where the individual embraces an active commitment to
her/his neighbor as one human family. As a manifestation of the
oneness of the human family, the pope points to the ‘positive moral
value of the growing awareness of the interdependence among
individuals and nations’. Having placed interdependence in the moral
category, John Paul is able to posit that the correlative response as a
moral social attitude, as a ‘virtue’ is solidarity. According to Donal Dorr,
John Paul II’s account of solidarity in Sollicitudo rei socialis is part of the
Pope’s effort to overcome the individualistic viewpoint on virtue and
the moral life, which marred moral theology in the past. By
emphasizing solidarity as a virtue, the Pope wants to say that virtue is
not a private affair. Just as personal sin always has social dimension,
virtue, especially solidarity has effect on other people and the social
order. However, to appreciate further how solidarity functions as a
virtue a very brief overview of the concept of virtue is necessary.
Virtue: Etymologically, the word virtue derives from the Latin vir,
meaning man, hero, man of courage. From this standpoint virtue
signifies manliness or courage. According to the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, ‘a virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the
good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give
the best of himself. The virtuous person’.pursues the good and choses
it in concrete actions’. The Catechism also divides virtues into human
and theological. While the human virtues are ‘firm attitudes, stable
dispositions, habitual perfections of the intellect’, comprising the
cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude; the
theological virtues are ‘infused by God into the souls of the faithful’,
comprising faith, hope, and charity. By connecting solidarity to justice
and charity in Sollicitudo rei socialis, John Paul II, inserts solidarity as
both a human and a theological virtue.
Solidarity as a human virtue: The virtue of solidarity, assets John Paul
II, is not ‘a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the
misfortune of so many people both near and far. On the contrary, it is a
firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common
good; that is to say to the good of all’. By positively defining solidarity
as ‘a firm and persevering determination’ the pope affirms that it is a
