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Pope Francis has long praised the word “brotherhood,” a concept that can sometimes seem completely exhausted when he’s not actually making fun of it.
Oct 10, 2020
By Loup Besmond de Senneville
Pope Francis has long praised the word “brotherhood,” a concept that can sometimes seem completely exhausted when he’s not actually making fun of it. What can be done to ensure that there is no empty word?
The Pope seeks to answer this in the pages of Fratelli Tutti, a new “social encyclical” that focuses on “brotherhood and social friendship.”
The text was published last Sunday, the feast of San Francisco de Asís. The pope had gone to his namesake’s hometown a day earlier to celebrate mass at the saint’s tomb and then sign the new document.
This is more than a programmatic encyclical. Throughout the long text (it has more than 41,000 words), Francisco develops themes that he touched on five years ago in Laudato Si ‘, an encyclical on topics related to ecology.
The former archbishop of Buenos Aires says that Fratelli Tutti is meant to be a “modest contribution to ongoing reflection” on the state of the world. But it’s much more than that.
Francisco begins by establishing the context, describing the general state of the world that surprises in its darkness.
The encyclical describes a “closed world” full of “dark clouds” that are quite disturbing. And his diagnosis is sometimes severe.
After several decades of pacification in many parts of the world, including Latin America and Europe, “our own days, … seem to show signs of a certain regression,” the Pope worries.
The resurgence of conflicts, resentment, divisions between peoples, the resurgence of unhealthy “populism” and nationalism, generational breaks, inequality between women and men, consumer fever, verbal violence in social networks, indifference towards the weakest, etc. all the signs underlined by the Bishop of Rome.
Not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, which erupted after the Pope had already started writing the new encyclical. The emergence of the coronavirus seems to have confirmed Francisco’s intuitions about the urgency of solidarity.
Throughout this text, the Pope evokes concepts that he has been insisting on since the beginning of the pontificate, such as the “culture of discarding” and the conviction that the world is going through what he calls a “third world war” waged by parts “. which emerged in his speeches as early as 2015.
Francis does not forgive some Christians, whom he reproaches for increasing the misery of the world, for example, by considering migrants as unworthy of being welcomed.
“For Christians, this way of thinking and acting is unacceptable, since it puts certain political preferences before the deep convictions of our faith,” he writes.
“Fraternity necessarily requires something greater, which in turn enhances freedom and equality”
But this observation about the state of the world should not make us lose hope, insists the Pope. Rather, it repeatedly calls us to “dream” of universal brotherhood.
It is in the name of this fraternity that Jesus “challenges us to put aside all differences and, in the face of suffering, to get closer to others”.
In fact, throughout his encyclical, Francis describes the different dimensions of fraternity, a key concept of his pontificate.
“Fellowship necessarily requires something greater, which in turn enhances freedom and equality,” he says.
He associates fraternity with what he calls “social friendship,” a concept he forged in the early 2000s when he was still the archbishop of Buenos Aires.
“Genuine social friendship within a society makes true universal openness possible,” the Pope writes in Fratelli Tutti.
And he insists that fraternity has primarily financial implications.
Francis thus reminds us of the existence of the principle of the universal destination of goods, central to the social doctrine of the Church, and which even supplants the right to private property.
“Private property can only be considered a secondary natural right,” he explains.
It also highlights the “limits” of the liberal vision of an economic system that calls for change.
“In some closed and monochromatic economic approaches, for example, there seems to be no place for popular movements that unite the unemployed, temporary and informal workers and many others who do not easily find a place in existing structures,” the Pope writes.
“Welcome, protect, promote and integrate”
He says that another variation of the fraternity is found in the reception of migrants.
“Ideally, unnecessary migration should be avoided; This implies creating in the countries of origin the necessary conditions for a dignified life and integral development ”, the Pope concedes.
But when this is not possible, he says it is necessary to “welcome, protect, promote and integrate” people.
Francis suggests some very concrete ways to do this, such as improving visa granting, opening humanitarian corridors for refugees, guaranteeing the right to always have identity documents or opening a bank account.
Throughout the encyclical he expresses his attachment to a “universal brotherhood” that cannot be left without consequences.
However, the universality of which he speaks here is not the same that promotes a triumphant globalization, which, like a steamroller, would crush all differences, for what Francis calls “the new forms of cultural colonization.”
As developed by the Pope, “universality does not necessarily dilute its distinctive characteristics.”
“Never again war!”
Francisco is convinced that fraternity cannot be limited to a set of objectives to be achieved. He sees it more broadly as a method that has a direct consequence on how we are in the world and, in particular, on our commitment to “persistent and courageous dialogue”.
He insists that dialogue must prevail in all situations, even in the public arena, when two parties are negotiating peace.
Francisco dedicates a long passage to the themes of peace and reconciliation.
And it condemns all those who claim the notion of a “just war.”
“It is very difficult today to invoke the rational criteria developed in previous centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war’,” says the 83-year-old Pope.
Faced with these imperfect justifications, he prefers to accept the appeal that Paul VI launched in 1965 to the United Nations: “Never again war!”
When Francis speaks of dialogue, he obviously includes the interfaith type. This also runs through the entire encyclical, which he signed in Assisi, the cradle of Saint Francis and the international center for interreligious dialogue.
“We believers are challenged to return to our sources, to concentrate on what is essential: the worship of God and love of neighbor,” the Pope writes.
While in Laudato Si ‘he was more interested in a common reflection with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, this time the Pope goes one step further and mentions the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayeb four times.
The two men signed a landmark declaration on human brotherhood last year in Abu Dhabi “for world peace and coexistence.”
His call to peace, justice and brotherhood is fully reflected in the new encyclical. And soon a forum will be held in Rome and at Al-Azhar University that will bring together young people from all over the world to study this encyclical.
This is one last way to hope that “a torrent of brotherly love” flows in everyone. ––LCI (international.la-croix.com)
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