Letter addressed to whole of Catholic church urges
nations to work towards a just world
Pope
Francis has warned against “myopic, extremist, resentful and
aggressive nationalism” in some countries, and a “growing loss of the sense of
history” in a major document outlining his view of the world.
Fratelli Tutti – the third encyclical, a pastoral letter addressed to the
whole of the Catholic church, of his papacy – was published on Sunday, the
feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, amid global uncertainty and anxiety over the
Covid-19 pandemic and rising populism.
In the 45,000-word document, the pope urges
nations to work towards a just and fraternal world based on common membership
of the human family. He expands on familiar themes in his teachings, including
opposition to war, the death penalty, slavery, trafficking, inequality and
poverty; concerns about alienation, isolation and social media; and support for
migrants fleeing violence and seeking a better life.
Pope Francis
had begun writing the encyclical when the pandemic “unexpectedly erupted”. But,
he says, the crisis has reinforced his belief that political and economic
institutions must be reformed to address the needs of those most harmed by it.
The global health emergency has demonstrated that “no one can face life in
isolation” and that the “magic theories” of market capitalism have failed.
“Aside from the differing ways that various
countries responded to the crisis, their inability to work together became
quite evident,” Francis writes. “Anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be
learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine
existing systems and regulations, is denying reality.
“The fragility of world systems in the face of
the pandemic has demonstrated that not everything can be resolved by market
freedom. It is imperative to have a proactive economic policy directed at
‘promoting an economy that favours productive diversity and business
creativity’ and makes it possible for jobs to be created, and not cut.”
Francis says a “certain regression” has taken
place in today’s world. He notes the rise of “myopic, extremist, resentful and
aggressive nationalism” in some countries, and “new forms of selfishness and a
loss of the social sense”.
The
leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics says “we are more alone than ever” in a
world of “limitless consumerism” and “empty individualism” where there is a
“growing loss of the sense of history” and a “kind of deconstructionism”. “Hyperbole,
extremism and polarisation” have become political tools in many countries, he
writes, without “healthy debates” and long-term plans but rather “slick
marketing techniques aimed at discrediting others”.
He notes that “we are growing ever more
distant from one another” and that voices “raised in defence of the environment
are silenced and ridiculed”. Addressing digital culture, he criticises
campaigns of “hatred and destruction” and says technology is removing people
from reality. Fraternity depends on “authentic encounters”.
Pope Francis’s new
encyclical is a papal warning about a world going backward
ROME —
Humankind, Pope Francis says, is in the midst of a worrying regression. People
are intensely polarized. Their debates, absent real listening, seem to have
devolved into a "permanent state of disagreement and confrontation."
In some countries, leaders are using a "strategy of ridicule" and
relentless criticism, spreading despair as a way to "dominate and gain
control."
Amid all that, the pope says, the notion of a
kinder, more respecting world “sounds like madness.”
But with the release Sunday of his third
encyclical, a book-length paper that feels like something from a bygone time,
Francis makes an uncynical case for how people can reverse course. The document
amounts to a papal stand against tribalism, xenophobia, and the dangers of the
social media age. It also marks a test for Francis in the eighth year of his
papacy, at a time when his message has become familiar, and is often
overshadowed by the louder voices he warns about.
The coronavirus has put a near-halt to the
public events that had become Francis’s hallmark. The pope began writing the
encyclical, called “Fratelli Tutti,” or “Brothers All,” before the pandemic.
But he argues that the world’s response to the crisis shows the depth of
humanity’s mistrust and fractures.
“For
all our hyper-connectivity, we witnessed a fragmentation that made it more
difficult to resolve problems that affect us all,” he writes.
For Americans, certain passages will likely
read as a warning against Trump-style politics. Those sentiments come as little
surprise to anybody who has listened to the pope’s remarks over the years —
with frequent denunciations of populism and wall-building — but the paper
argues in more details about how the style can exacerbate divisions and lead to
other societal breakdowns.
“Things that until a few years ago could not
be said by anyone without risking the loss of universal respect can now be said
with impunity, and in the crudest of terms, even by some political figures,”
Francis writes.
He adds that
there are “huge economic interests” operating in the digital world, capable of
manipulation and subverting “the democratic process.”
The way many
platforms work often ends up favoring encounters between persons who think
alike, shielding them from debate,” Francis writes. “These closed circuits
facilitate the spread of fake news and false information, fomenting prejudice
and hate.”
Francis’s prescriptions range from the
policy-based to the spiritual. He describes steps he says countries should take
to more adeptly integrate migrants. He says businesses should direct themselves
to eliminate poverty, “especially through the creation of diversified work opportunities.”
He says people born into privilege must remember that others — the poor, the
disabled — need a “proactive state” more than they do.
Other ideas are more fundamental, and deal
with listening to the points of view of others.
“Other cultures are not ‘enemies’ from which
we need to protect ourselves, but differing reflections of the inexhaustible
richness of human life,” Francis writes.
He includes a
critique of consumerism, “empty individualism,” and the free market. Even the
right to private property, he says, should be secondary to the common good.
“This is a legacy document,” said Monsignor
Kevin Irwin, a research professor at the Catholic University of America in
Washington, who wrote an introduction to the English edition of the encyclical.
“I think this pope is a big-picture guy and he wants to make sure that this is
perceived to be the Catholic Church at its best, being welcoming and inviting.”
The document is not just for Catholics, Francis says, but for all people of
“good will.”
The pope’s previous encyclical, Laudato Si’,
addressed responsibility for the environment, climate change and development.
His first, Lumen fidei — The Light of Faith — released in 2013, months after he
became pope, was written mostly by Benedict XVI, with only a few changes.
“[Fratelli
Tutti] surely is the most political encyclical,” said Monsignor Domenico
Pompili, the bishop of Rieti and head of the Italian bishops’ commission for
culture and social communication. “One of its clearest critiques is against
politics as a sort of marketing with shortsighted goals. It’s aiming to
medium-to-long goals, politics as a vision.”
In the lead-up to Laudato Si’ in 2015, the
church held a splashy multimedia rollout in a Vatican hall for journalists and
other church officials. This time, the process was far more subdued. Francis
traveled on Saturday to Assisi, the Italian hill town that is the birthplace of
St. Francis, to sign the document at the saint’s tomb. Only a few dozen people
were allowed to attend. The pope, who was not seen wearing a mask, traveled to
Assisi by car. It was his first trip outside of Rome since the start of the
pandemic.
Even before the coronavirus, Francis no longer
attracted the fanfare seen in the early years of his papacy. Abuse scandals have bruised
his reputation, and there is less novelty about his reform plans for the
church. But the pandemic has added to the challenge, keeping the pope mostly
confined inside the city-state, where in March he groused that he felt “caged.”
Francis’s
year has had some indelible moments — especially a solitary ceremony he held in
a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square — but the virus has denied the pontiff many of
his reliable paths for outreach. The Vatican has put on hold all of Francis’s
overseas trips, and with it, the news conferences he typically holds aboard the
papal plane. In 2019, Francis visited 11 countries and spent a month on the
road, often in places on the Catholic periphery that he thought had been
overlooked for too long.
“Removed
from the people, he’s like a fish out of water,” said one Vatican official, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity to share his frank comments on the pope.
“Basically, Pope Francis is still in that cage to this day.”
Austen
Ivereigh, a Francis biographer, said it’s clear the pope had planned to release
this encyclical before the pandemic, and it is not his response to the year’s
tumult.
“But one might say that the covid crisis has
made his message more urgent and relevant,” Ivereigh said. He noted that
Francis makes reference to the virus in several passages. “In journalism, we’d
say it is pegged to the crisis rather than a response to it.”
Francis does not touch on any of Catholicism’s
touchiest issues, such as roles for women and LGBT members inside the church,
and though he talks generally about forms of abuse, he does not mention the sex
crimes committed by Catholic clerics against minors. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit
priest and senior analyst at the Religion News Service, wrote that the paper
“is not a quick read that can be used for partisan bickering.”
Reese noted that many elements of the paper
will be familiar to those who have followed Francis’s papacy closely, and the
pope widely incorporates material from past speeches.
