Moving Toward a More Interrelated World: Franciscan Hope and Solidarity
Author: Thomas Nairn, OFM
Date Published: July 23, 2025
These ways of interpreting the world and its evolution, with the unprecedented forms of relatedness that correspond to it, can provide us with signs of hope, which we are seeking as pilgrims during this Jubilee year (cf Bull Spes non confundit, 7). Hope is the fundamental attitude that supports us on the journey. It does not consist of waiting with resignation, but of striving with zeal towards true life, which leads well beyond the narrow individual perimeter. As Pope Benedict XVI reminded us, hope “is linked to a lived union with a ‘people’, ad for each individual it can only be attained within this ‘we’’ (Encyclical Letter Spe salvi, 14). Pope Francis, “The End of the World? Crises, Responsibilities, Hopes,” March 4, 2025
The idea that Pope Francis described in this paragraph is what modern popes, since the time of Pope Pius XII, have called solidarity. Pope Pius XII was the first to use this term, linking human solidarity to the virtue of charity (cf. Summi pontificatus, 35). The term grew in importance with the great social encyclicals of Pope John XXIII (Mater et magistra and Pacem in terris) and Pope Paul VI (Populorum progressio). Pope John Paul II described solidarity itself as a virtue and explained that it is “not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes 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 and of each individual” (Sollicitudo rei socialis, 38). As we see in the above quote, Pope Benedict XVI connected solidarity with hope, adding that “while this community-oriented vision of the ‘blessed life’ is certainly directed beyond the present world, it also has to do with the building up of this world” (Spes salvi, 15).
These documents of Catholic social teaching, however, can be rather formal and abstract. They are important documents. They accurately articulate Church teaching. However, the language of solidarity and that of the common good are often misunderstood in the United States. Some condemn these ideas as “socialist,” while others misinterpret them in utilitarian terms of the greatest good for the greatest number. People can get lost in debates about the meaning of the words and lose the vision that our Catholic social tradition is trying to convey.
Perhaps the simplicity that is part of our Franciscan vision can help explain the Catholic understanding of hope and solidarity – of moving to a more interrelated world – in a more compelling way. St. Francis used the familial language of “brother” and “sister.” He experienced himself as being profoundly loved by God, and this experience impelled him to see the expansiveness of God’s love for all. Like us, all creatures have their origins in God, are loved by God, and are therefore our very sisters and brothers in God’s loving family, a holy community.
That understanding of community, that all are sisters and brothers, can inspire us in ways that an abstract call to solidarity may not. In his autobiography, published shortly before his death, Pope Francis wrote: “The word community gives out a pleasant feeling, whatever the term might mean. Companies and societies may even be bad; community no. Community is always a good thing. It evokes everything for which we feel the need and which we lack in order to feel confident, calm and self-assured. . . . The aspect of community is not decoration but an integral part of Christian life and evangelization” (Hope, p. 138).
Citing the encounter of St. Francis with the leper, our 2021 General Chapter invited us to go out to the many people in our world today “that our societies have deemed ‘too bitter’ to be seen or even loved. It is these people that the Holy Spirit first invites us to accompany and bear witness to the Gospel through loving and merciful actions” (Final Document, par 38). As friars, we are called into community, and this affects our understanding of solidarity, personalized into fraternity. For us, being in solidarity with others is walking together with them, being a brother to them, accepting responsibility for them, caring about them, taking care of them, and allowing them to care for us. For us friars, solidarity is mutual love.
In the late 1990s, I was the Visitator General to the then Vice-Province of St. Francis in East Africa. I will never forget one of the young friars who told me his story during our visitation. He was from the Tutsi ethnic group in Rowanda. One night in April of 1994, his entire family was massacred – mother, father, brothers and sisters, their spouses and their children. All except him and a younger brother who were not in the area. He came to Uganda, where he met the friars. On the first anniversary of the massacre, he left the village early to be in the bush and pray for his family. The friars searched for him, and it was not until late afternoon that they found him. Without saying a word, they formed a circle around him and prayed in silence. When he was ready, later that evening, they all accompanied him back to the village – again without saying a word. The friar told me that it he was born again on that day. That was when he decided to become a friar, moving from darkness to hope.
So many in our present day are experiencing fear, disconnection, disassociation, loneliness – so many forms of darkness. Many of our fellow citizens do not have hope, see no future for themselves or their children. We are called to turn their darkness into hope. For many of us, this may involve political engagement, for others direct service to or advocacy for those who have been shoved to the margins of society, but for all of us it may be as simple as giving others an encouraging word, listening to their stories, or just being present in silence.
At a time when so many have become mere bystanders to the events affecting the lives and well-being of others, hope calls us friars to stand by others, especially our sisters and brothers who have in some way been marginalized. This is how we show solidarity and bring others hope – by showing them by deeds more than by words that they belong, that we care. This is not some “woke” ideology but rather our 800-year tradition of being Friars Minor – little brothers in God’s amazing family.