Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has said Christian solidarity must not be limited to an occasional outburst of global solidarity.
Speaking at a conference in Britain yesterday to mark the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes, Archbishop Martin said Christians must work with all those who share the same concerns, and avoid the superficial and cliched.
Their commitment must not "be limited to the occasional outburst of global solidarity such as that on the occasion of the tsunami or the more militant enthusiasm engendered in these days around the G8 meeting. For the Christian, solidarity should be the stuff of everyday".
Archbishop Martin was keynote speaker at a four-day conference in Worth Abbey, West Sussex, marking the publication in 1965 of Gaudium et Spes which looked at the church's relationship with the world.
Archbishop Martin said it would be foolish to pretend that all Christians today fully subscribed to the vision of marriage and the family contained in Gaudium et Spes.
"Many young people have acclimatised themselves to the values of contemporary society. Many do not wish to formally marry.
"Many, if not most, will live together for shorter or longer periods before they finally get married. Divorce is not desired but most of our Christian believers would consider it not just a necessary evil but perhaps even a valuable institution.
"It is interesting that many of those young people who set out on such a path develop into excellent spouses and parents, learning marital and parental abilities you might say from nature itself rather than through any formal catechises on the part of the church."