The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Is Minneapolis Finally Teaching America
the Meaning of “Solidarity”? By Matthew Fox 1/26/2025 |
Years ago, when I was fighting with the fascist forces of the Roman Catholic Church that were bringing back the Inquisition in our time, silencing theologians and expelling many of us, I sat down with a hero of mine, Father Albert Nolan. |
A Dutch Dominican working with Bishop Tutu and others to end apartheid in South Africa, Nolan had been elected Master General of the Dominican Order but turned it down—the only one in 800 years to do so. The South African government had sought to arrest him, and for years he was on the lam in that country. |
Friends and colleagues remember anti-apartheid activist and Catholic priest, Father Albert Nolan, a theologian and author who dedicated his life to the struggle against Apartheid. SABC News |
Nolan is the author of Jesus Before Christianity, which was a required text at our Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names
College in Oakland, California. I was told by an insider in the Catholic diocese that I was now “radioactive” and no Catholic bishop in the country would sponsor me. I confided to Nolan that, having been expelled from the Order after 34 years in good standing, I was giving serious consideration to becoming an Episcopal priest in order to
work with young people from Sheffield, England, to reinvent forms of Liturgy by bringing rave into the Liturgy. Nolan’s response was electric: “Do it! Perfect! What Rome wants to do is isolate you and you need to find a Christian community that will support you.” Then he added, “The reason the American Dominicans have not supported you is
that North Americans don’t know a goddamn thing about solidarity.” What is solidarity? According to Webster’s Dictionary, “solidarity” comes from the French word for “solid” and the Latin word, solidum,” meaning “whole sum.” Its synonym is: “Unity.” Thus, “a group or class that produces or is based on a community
of interests, objectives, and standards.” |
Rest in Power: Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two of eight innocent victims of ICE
murder (see the full list of casualties HERE). Photos on Wikimedia Commons. | Is the current resistance in Minneapolis to the fascism in the streets, aided and abetted by the recent “big, beautiful bill” voted unanimously
by every Republican congressperson and senator, which promises $74 billion for such activities, a fine instance of solidarity? |
Two American citizens have died in the past ten days at the hands of government employees. Both the head of Homeland Security and the vice president of the US have lied about their deaths. There were many witnesses to the latest murder of Alex Pretti, who was shot numerous times, even though he
had been pepper-sprayed and was not resisting. He was a nurse in a veterans hospital who loved the outdoors and riding his bicycle in it, and was opposed to Trump’s destruction of the EPA as well as to the invasion of his city. DHS head Noem lied when she told the country that he approached ICE members with a gun in his
hand. People who were there say he was carrying a phone in his hand (a gun, which he legally owned, was found under layers of his clothes, but he never pulled it out). Following is a sworn affidavit from a woman who filmed his murder and was five feet from him. |
The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn’t see him touch any of them—he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents |
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had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times. I don’t know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him.* Americans need to learn the meaning of “solidarity.” It has to do with
community-building after all. It cuts at the heart of the “rugged individualism” and egoism so central to capitalism and a John Wayne version of America. It is another word for interdependence, which lies at the center of what compassion means. Jesus taught: “Be you compassionate as your Creator in heaven
is compassionate.” Today’s science is rediscovering the wisdom of the mystics who teach the priority of compassion and interdependence. Hildegard: “Everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.” |
Queries for Contemplation Do you give credit to the citizens of Minnesota and beyond who are standing up
to ICE for witnessing to and teaching Americans about solidarity? How important is solidarity to building community? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! CREATION SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS |
Podcaster Jon Wilson speaks with Matthew Fox about Creation Spirituality: how Matthew became a Dominican priest; his studies in Paris, Original Blessing versus the Fall-Redemption tradition; the Four Paths; mystics Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and Otto Rank; Eros, ritual and how ‘this is
wisdom to love life’. Listen HERE. |
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