5.2. Commitment to the Weakest

54. Our solidarity with the whole human family implies a special commitment to the most vulnerable and marginalized. They should be a privileged category for the love and care of others. The natural unity of the human family cannot be fully achieved when peoples are suffering from poverty, discrimination, oppression and social alienation that lead to isolation and detachment from the community at large.

55. However, our commitment in love must be voluntary if it is to be virtuous. In a special way, solidarity urges us to seek relations that tend toward equality on the local, national and international levels. All the members of the human community should be incorporated in the fullest way possible into the circuits of productive and creative relations.⁵¹

56. The peoples of the Third World in particular have suffered the onslaughts of the enemies of life and thus deserve our special attention. Diseases such as AIDS, malaria, etc., crop failures, drought, war, famine and corruption continue to sow innocent victims in many countries. These ills impede the peoples' full development and productivity and keep them from joining the rest of the human family on an equal footing. Frequently, production and economic growth in production take place leaving these peoples aside. Solidarity requires the international community to continue working to achieve global strategies that lead to combating disease and hunger and to promoting authentic human development. The normative dimension of solidarity requires us to make an effort to set up relations with the developing countries that aim at equality. In this process, however, those who enjoy the privileges of overabundance have a corresponding obligation: namely, to give generously so as to put the less fortunate in a position to achieve standards of life by themselves which are in accordance with human dignity.

57. However, it is necessary to proceed with caution so that interventions in foreign countries will be respectful of the integrity of local cultures and economies. Too often, in the name of solidarity, foreign aid goes to corrupt governments and does not reach those who need it most. Moreover, many forms of intervention create local distortions that give rise to dependence rather than equal conditions by destroying the means for self-sufficiency. The aid programs in the name of solidarity should be designed in such a way as to integrate solid economic, cultural and political principles into the logic of solidarity. In this way, solidarity will make a significant unity of peoples possible in the context of human diversity.