„Błogosławieni solidarni”

Abstract

The issue of social issues was not alien in the theological reflection of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. A kind of opus magnum in the output of Pope Benedict XVI is the encycli-cal from 2009: Caritas in veritate. The Pope touches upon contemporary problems that concern humanity, trying to point to the most important capital which is a human being. At the same time, he indicates that for the defense of integral human development, it is necessary to agree and respect his spiritual layer. The Pope warns that humanism without God becomes inhuman humanism. An expression of solidarity is respect for religious free-dom, and the greatest enemy of solidarity, according to Benedict XVI, is marginalization. In 1983, in Bydgoszcz, there was a confrontation of the social movement of “Solidarity” with the civic militia. In response, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki dedicated his work to Byd-goszcz Miserere op. 44. The composer’s religious creativity in times of forcing the idea of practical materialism reminded us of a deeper (spiritual) layer of reality. The words taken from the Bible and the Roman Missal, accompanied by a four-part choir, lead the listener through meditation on the human person and life. The article points to the main idea of both authors not to degrade man to the material and biological. The evidence points to the theological way of the Pope’s command and the musical form of the message of religious content by H. M. Gorecki.