The 13 salient passages of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti
The pandemic. The pandemic. The penalty. Financial speculation. The walls. The market. Populism. The foreign debt. The UN. The Shoah. Here are some of the main issues addressed by Fratelli Tutti.
"'Brothers all', wrote St. Francis of Assisi to address all the brothers and sisters and propose them a form of life with the flavor of the Gospel".
This is the opening words of Pope Francis' new encyclical, “Brothers all”, on fraternity and social friendship, signed by the Pontiff yesterday in Assisi and released today, on the feast of St. Francis.
"This Saint of fraternal love, simplicity and joy – writes the Pope in the introduction, followed by eight chapters -, who inspired me to write the Encyclical Laudato si ', once again motivates me to dedicate this new Encyclical to fraternity and social friendship. In fact, St. Francis, who felt himself a brother to the sun, the sea and the wind, knew that he was even more united with those who were of his own flesh. Everywhere he sowed peace and walked alongside the poor, the abandoned, the sick, the discarded, the least ”. “Issues related to fraternity and social friendship have always been among my concerns – explains the Pontiff -. In recent years I have referred to them several times and in different places. I wanted to collect many of these interventions in this Encyclical, placing them in a broader context of reflection ”.
Moreover, "if in the editorial staff of Laudato si 'I had a source of inspiration in my brother Bartholomew, the Orthodox Patriarch who strongly proposed the care of creation, in this case I felt stimulated in a special way by the Great Imam Ahmad Al -Tayyeb, with whom I met in Abu Dhabi to remember that God 'created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and called them to live together as brothers among themselves' ". “Just as I was writing this letter, the Covid-19 pandemic broke in unexpectedly, exposing our false securities. Beyond the various responses given by the different countries, the inability to act together became evident ", adds Francis:" I so desire that, in this time that we are given to live, recognizing the dignity of every human person, we can revive a worldwide aspiration to fraternity among all ”.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE MAIN STEPS OF THE ENCYCLIC (HERE THE FULL TEXT) :
The pandemic
"If everything is connected, it is difficult to think that this global disaster is not related to our way of placing ourselves with respect to reality, pretending to be absolute masters of one's life and everything that exists". “I don't want to say that it is a kind of divine punishment – he adds -. Nor would it be enough to say that the damage caused to nature in the end requires the account of our abuses. It is reality itself that groans and rebels. The famous verse of the poet Virgil comes to mind which evokes the weeping human affairs ”.
“A global tragedy such as the Covid-19 pandemic has actually aroused for some time the awareness of being a world community that sails in the same boat, where the evil of one goes to the detriment of all. We remembered that no one is saved alone, that one can only be saved together ”. This is why, he adds, I said that “the storm unmasks our vulnerability and leaves uncovered those false and superfluous certainties with which we have built our agendas, our projects, our habits and priorities. […] With the storm, the trick of those stereotypes with which we disguised our “egos” always concerned about their own image fell away; and once again that (blessed) common belonging to which we cannot escape has been discovered: belonging as Brothers ”.
War
War is not "a ghost of the past" – underlines Pope Francis in the seventh chapter of 'Brothers all' – but "a constant threat" and represents the "denial of all rights", "the failure of politics and humanity" , “The shameful surrender to the forces of evil” and their “abyss”. Furthermore, due to the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons affecting many innocent civilians, today we can no longer think, as in the past, of a possible "just war", but we must strongly reaffirm "No more war!". And considering that we are living "a third world war in pieces", because all conflicts are connected to each other, the total elimination of nuclear weapons is "a moral and humanitarian imperative". Rather – the Pope suggests – with the money that is invested in armaments, a world fund is established to eliminate hunger.
The penalty
"The murderer does not lose his personal dignity – writes the Pontiff – God is his guarantor". Hence, two exhortations: not to see punishment as revenge, but as part of a process of healing and social reintegration, and to improve the conditions of prisons, while respecting the human dignity of prisoners, also considering that life imprisonment "is a hidden death penalty ”. The need to respect "the sacredness of life" is reiterated where today "certain parts of humanity seem expendable", such as the unborn, the poor, the disabled, the elderly.
Financial speculation
Financial speculation “with easy gain as its fundamental purpose continues to wreak havoc”, while “without internal forms of solidarity and mutual trust, the market cannot fully perform its economic function. Today it is this trust that has failed ”.
The walls
"Paradoxically, there are ancestral fears that have not been overcome by technological progress". The temptation to create a culture of walls reappears, to raise walls, walls in the heart, walls in the earth to prevent this encounter with other cultures, with other people. And whoever raises a wall, whoever builds a wall will end up as a slave inside the walls he built, without horizons. Because he lacks this otherness ”. Furthermore, “the loneliness, fears and insecurity of so many people, who feel abandoned by the system, are creating fertile ground for the mafias. These in fact impose themselves by presenting themselves as 'protectors' of the forgotten, often through various types of help, while pursuing their criminal interests ”.
Nationalism
“There are still those who feel they feel encouraged or at least authorized by their faith to support various forms of closed and violent nationalism, xenophobic attitudes, contempt and even mistreatment of those who are different. Faith, with the humanism it inspires, must keep a critical sense alive in the face of these tendencies and help to react quickly when they begin to creep in ”, writes the Pope in 'Brothers all', in the chapter on the Good Samaritan. Therefore "it is important that catechesis and preaching include in a more direct and clear way the social sense of existence, the fraternal dimension of spirituality, the conviction on the inalienable dignity of every person and the reasons for loving and welcoming everyone".
Individualism
“Individualism does not make us freer, more equal, more brothers. The mere sum of individual interests cannot generate a better world for all of humanity. Nor can it preserve us from so many evils that are becoming increasingly global ”, writes Pope Francis in the third chapter of 'all brothers',' Thinking and generating an open world”. “But radical individualism is the most difficult virus to defeat. Deceive. It makes us believe that everything consists in giving free rein to our ambitions, as if by accumulating individual ambitions and certainties we could build the common good ”, he adds. According to Francis, two are, in particular, the 'tools' for creating a fraternal society: benevolence, that is, the concrete desire for the good of the other, and solidarity which takes care of the frailties and is expressed in service to people and not to people. ideologies, fighting against poverty and inequality. The right to live with dignity cannot be denied to anyone, the Pontiff still affirms, and since rights are without borders, no one can be excluded, regardless of where they were born.
The foreign debt
“We are talking about a new network in international relations, because there is no way to solve the serious problems of the world by reasoning only in terms of mutual aid between individuals or small groups. Let us remember that 'inequity affects not only individuals, but entire countries, and forces us to think of an ethics of international relations' ”, says the Pope in 'All Brothers'. “And justice requires recognizing and respecting not only individual rights, but also the social rights and rights of peoples”, he continues. “What we are saying implies that the 'fundamental right of peoples to subsistence and progress' is ensured, which at times is severely hampered by the pressure deriving from foreign debt – explains Francesco -. The payment of the debt in many cases not only does not favor development but limits it and strongly conditions it. Although the principle is maintained that every legitimately contracted debt must be paid, the way of fulfilling this duty, which many poor countries have towards rich countries, must not lead to compromising their subsistence and growth ”.
The rights
"It is our duty to respect the right of every human being to find a place where he can not only satisfy his basic needs and those of his family, but also fulfill himself fully as a person", says Pope Francis in 'Brothers all', in the fourth chapter “A heart open to the whole world”. "Of course – he concedes -, the ideal would be to avoid unnecessary migration and for this purpose the path is to create in the countries of origin the concrete possibility of living and growing with dignity, so that the conditions for one's integral development can be found there. ".
Populism
Politics “degenerates into insane populism when it changes into someone's ability to attract consensus in order to politically exploit the culture of the people, under any ideological sign, at the service of one's personal project and one's stay in power. Other times it aims to accumulate popularity by fomenting the lower and selfish inclinations of certain sectors of the population. This is aggravated when it becomes, in gross or subtle forms, a subjugation of institutions and of legality ”. Pope Francis affirms this in the encyclical 'Brothers all', in the fifth chapter "The best policy".
The market and the neoliberal faith
“The market alone does not solve everything, although at times they want us to believe this dogma of neoliberal faith – states Pope Francis in 'Brothers all' -. It is a poor, repetitive thought, which always offers the same recipes in the face of any challenge that arises. Neoliberalism reproduces itself as it is, using the magical theory of 'overflow' or 'dripping' – without naming it as the only way to solve social problems. We do not realize that the alleged overflow does not resolve the inequality, which is the source of new forms of violence that threaten the social fabric ”. The politics that is needed, Francis continues, is the one that says no to corruption, inefficiency, the misuse of power, the lack of respect for the laws. It is a policy centered on human dignity and not subject to finance because precisely "the market alone does not solve everything". and the "massacres" caused by financial speculations have demonstrated this.
The UN
"I remember that a reform 'of both the United Nations Organization and of the international economic and financial architecture is necessary, so that the concept of the family of nations can be given real substance'", states Pope Francis in the encyclical 'Brothers all'. According to the Pontiff, faced with the predominance of the economic dimension which nullifies the power of the single State, in fact, the task of the United Nations will be to work for the common good, the eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights. Tirelessly resorting to "negotiation, good offices and arbitration" – states the pontifical document – the UN must promote the strength of law over the law of force, favoring multilateral agreements that better protect even the weakest states.
The Shoah
“The Shoah must not be forgotten. It is the 'symbol of where man's wickedness can go when, fomented by false ideologies, he forgets the fundamental dignity of every person, which deserves absolute respect whatever the people to which he belongs and the religion he professes' ", affirms pope Francis in 'All Brothers'. In remembering her, “I cannot help but repeat this prayer”, which he already said to Yad Vashem: “Remember us in your mercy. Give us the grace to be ashamed of what, as men, we have been able to do, to be ashamed of this highest idolatry, of having despised and destroyed our flesh, the one you kneaded from the mud, the one you vivified with your breath of life. . Never again, Lord, never again! ”. “The atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki should not be forgotten – he continues, citing what was said in Hiroshima at the Peace Memorial -. Once again 'I remember all the victims here and I bow before the strength and dignity of those who, having survived those first moments, have endured in their bodies for many years the most acute suffering and, in their minds, the germs of death that continued to consume their life energy. […] We cannot allow current and new generations to lose the memory of what happened, that memory which is a guarantee and stimulus to build a more just and fraternal future '”. Nor should they be forgotten, he adds, “the persecutions, slave trafficking and ethnic massacres that have taken place and are still taking place in various countries, and many other historical facts that make us ashamed of being human. They must always be remembered, always anew, without getting tired and without anesthetizing us ”. “Today it is easy to fall into the temptation to turn the page, saying that a long time has passed and that we need to look ahead – underlines Francis -. No, for God's sake! Without memory we never go forward, we cannot grow without an intact and luminous memory. We need to keep 'the flame of the collective conscience, witnessing to subsequent generations the horror of what happened', which 'awakens and preserves the memory of the victims in this way, so that human conscience becomes stronger and stronger in the face of every will. of domination and destruction '".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/primo-piano/i-13-passaggi-salienti-dellenciclica-fratelli-tutti/ on Sun, 04 Oct 2020 15:46:50 +0000.