Solidarity with Creation and Human Rights: Discovering the Lost Foundation

A true sense of solidarity played a crucial role in counteringCommunism’s denial of the unalienable dignity of the human person froma non-antagonistic position based in the universal message of the Gospel.Pope John Paul II, through the Thomistic Personalism that was fundamentalto the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fought tirelessly to reinstatethe pre-political truth of this dignity throughout the West. However, afterthe fall of the Berlin Wall, in the face of a persistent materialism, his focusbroadened to include a deeper consideration and stronger defense of the entire created order. Solidarity with creation speaks to the ontological covenantthat undergirds the dignity of the human person and calls him or her to atemporal and eschatological responsibility for the created world that “waitswith eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rm 8, 19). A deeperappreciation of and commitment to the metaphysical truths of reality implicit in solidarity with creation –participation, communion, and self-donation are necessary for the health of our natural world as well as the health of ourhuman communities and our democracies.