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Global solidarity ... ‘In Christ there is no east or west...’ “In Christ there is no east or west ... In him no south or north but one great family bound by love ... Throughout the whole wide earth .… ” This robust stanza of a familiar anthem proclaims a profound Christological article of faith on the uniqueness and saving universality of Jesus Christ for all persons and peoples. In the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), the Second Vatican Council declares that the divine plan of salvation is definitively disclosed in Christ, “who is the Mediator and at the same time the fullness of all revelation.” The redemption in Christ reveals “the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man ...” (DV n.2) Mission of the Redeemer (Redemptoris Missio, 1990), Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on the missionary nature of the Church, points out: “This definitive self-revelation of God is the fundamental reason why the Church is missionary by her very nature.”(RM n. 5) Mission of the Redeemer identifies compelling evangelical witness as including “concern for people, and of charity toward the poor, the weak and those who suffer.” Here Pope John Paul II refers to a commitment to peace, justice, and human rights as “a witness to the Gospel when it is a sign of concern for persons and is directed toward integral development.” (RM n. 42) The 1971 Synod of Bishops issued Justice in the World (Justitia in Mundo). That synodal document professed God’s plan of liberation and salvation to be “once and for all fulfilled in the Paschal Mystery of Christ.” The bishops at the Synod linked the social mission of the Church with evangelization in a historically remarkable and controversial statement: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.” Later, the 1974 Synod of Bishops on evangelization further explored the nature of salvation and the implications of “liberation” in the political, economic, and cultural spheres. Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelization in the Modern World (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1974) set forth several clarifications of the phrase “a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel.” From the clarification in Evangelii Nuntiandi, Theologian Donal Dorr notes that “reductionism” would be a misinterpretation of the celebrated passage from Justice in the World. Thus, Evangelii Nuntiandi asserts that liberation “cannot be limited to any restricted sphere whether it be economic, political, social, or cultural.”(EN n. 33) Moreover, the role of the Church cannot be “politicized,” that is, the Church does not teach “a specific political or social program but rather an integral vision of what it means to be human.” Christian anthropology entails “a theology of redemption.” (EN n. 32) That perspective is taken up in Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter, The Church in America (Ecclesia in America, 1999). The mission of the Church in America today is focused on “The New Evangelization,” a major theme in the teaching of Pope John Paul II. Jesus Christ is “the ‘good news’ of salvation made known to people yesterday, today and forever ...“The proclamation of Jesus Christ, “the human face of God and the divine face of man,” is an appeal for conversion by awakening and transforming hearts.” (EIA n. 67) Presenting Jesus Christ as the perfect model of evangelization, Pope John Paul II holds up the poor as “the first to be evangelized, following the example of Christ who said of himself: ‘The Spirit of the Lord ... has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.’” (Lk 4:18) At the same time, the Church’s preferential option for the poor is not “exclusive.” There exists a correlative responsibility not to neglect the “leading sectors of society.” To assure the creation of a just society, the new evangelization, then, must announce Christ “to leaders, men and women alike, insisting especially on the formation of consciences on the basis of the Church’s social doctrine.” (EIA n. 67) The Holy Father expresses the hope that formation of leaders grounded in the social doctrine of the Church “will act as the best antidote to the not infrequent cases of inconsistency and even corruption marking socio-political structures.” This insight of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on America has strong ramifications for catechesis “on a continent like America where the social question takes on such importance, that ‘growth in the understanding of the faith and its practical expression in social life are intimately connected.” The synodal deliberations on the new evangelization view the impact of an encounter with Christ as having “a positive repercussion in the promotion of the common good in a just society.” (EIA n. 69) In Tertio Milllennio Adveniente (On the Coming of the Third Millennium, 1994), Pope John Paul II noted that the last General Conference with the Bishops of Latin America had proposed a Synod for the Americas. A continental synod was to be planned to address the problems of “the new evangelization in both parts of the same continent, so different in origins and history, and on issues of justice and economic relations, in view of the enormous gap between north and south.” (TMA n. 38) In the encyclical On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 2003), Pope John Paul II affirms the need for “a sense of responsibility for the world today.” In the new millennium, Catholics must be mindful “not to neglect their duties as citizens in this world,” for theirs is “the task of contributing with the light of the Gospel to the building of a more human world, a world fully in harmony with God’s plan.” (EE n. 20) After the collapse of Communism in 1989, the global social question has shifted the continental divides from the East-West blocs to a North-South axis --- the advanced and developed nations and the underdeveloped nations of the world. The present moment of history raises a special urgency to the question of the geopolitics of North and South. In Centesimus Annus (1991), Pope John Paul II forged an inseparable bond between the credibility of the Church’s social message and the need for “the witness of action.” (CA n. 57) He observes that the promotion of justice makes concrete “(l)ove for others, and in the first place love for the poor, in whom the Church sees Christ himself ... The globalization of the economy is “a phenomenon that cannot be dismissed.” (CA n. 58) Solidarity must likewise be globalized. Pope John Paul II has confidence that the social doctrine of the Church can be “an effective contribution to the issues presented in a globalized economy.” In relation to that globalized economy, the Holy Father holds that the Church’s moral vision is held together by a threefold cornerstone --- “human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity.” (EIA n. 55) “In Christ there is no east or west ... In him no south or north ...” What are the concrete geopolitical implications of redemptive incarnation for evangelization and the pursuit of global justice?
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