The genuine warmth of the people of Trinidad and Tobago provides the foundation for “Deepening the Spirit of Solidarity in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain” – the second Pastoral Letter by Archbishop Edward Gilbert.

Download Pastoral letter from Archdiocesan website

Solidarity, the Letter makes clear, is evident in a variety of ways among us – in many aspects of our national life, in our generosity towards our Caribbean neighbours and in our support of the Church Universal. In the changed circumstances of the present, however, there is need to deepen that solidarity.

This second Letter broadens the theme of collaboration and solidarity already present in the Archbishop’s first Pastoral Letter, “An Archdiocesan Conservation about Crime and Violence”. 

Quoting the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – the document defines solidarity as a means by which “people care about and feel responsible for each other. It means they have a sense of individual awareness and reciprocal responsibility.

It means people are conscious of the fact that when they give they receive, that they can only give what has been given to them and that what they have been given never belongs to them for themselves alone”.

Solidarity becomes then a natural consequence of recognising love as a gift of God poured into our hearts and made continually present in the Eucharist.

We do not, however, always display the concern for others which solidarity demands, as the Letter states. At times in our individual lives and as a community of people we can be given to selfishness.

We live in a social climate, too, where the issues of crime and violence can cause us to view others with suspicion and to choose deliberately not to get involved. Solidarity will require adjustment of the perspectives to which we have begun to become accustomed.

Free dialogue

The call to “collaborate in solidarity” is, in the first instance, addressed to Catholics. The Archbishop is concerned about the dearth of vocations, the aging priesthood and difficulties involved in obtaining work permits for foreign clergy and religious.

All this can retard the work of the Church and requires a re-envisioning of how we operate if we are to rise to the challenges that these circumstances present. Solidarity is for the purpose of fulfilling the mission to which Christ has called his Church.

The Archbishop notes: “Through union with Christ our Archdiocese stands in continuity with the mission of Christ. In the Eucharist, the Church finds the spiritual power to carry out her mission.”

The Church, however, cannot be closed in on itself: neither can real collaboration happen among us without in some way affecting our everyday lives and our contacts outside of the Catholic infrastructure. The approach of the Church must be one that is courageous enough to allow for free dialogue within and outside it.

In the pastoral instruction Communio et Progressio (1971), the Church states: “The free dialogue within the Church does no injury to her unity and solidarity. It nurtures concord and the meeting of minds by permitting the free play of the variations of public opinion.”

The document stresses the need for charity even when there are different views and calls on the faithful to love the Church. “Everyone in this dialogue should be animated by the desire to build not to destroy. There should be a deep love for the Church and a compelling desire for its unity.”

The call to deepen the spirit of solidarity is a call to hope and one full of promise but, if it is to achieve its objective, the Church must also find ways of inspiring confidence among its members and of earning the respect of the wider community.