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October 23, 2020Fratelli Tutti: Building not Burning Bridges
A couple of weeks ago, Pope Francis published a new encyclical called Fratelli Tutti on the feast of St. Francis. Usually, encyclicals are addressed to those in the Catholic Church, since they often focus on clarification or promoting a certain aspect of faith. However, Pope Francis addresses Fratelli Tutti to the whole world because the subject pertains to every person, not just Catholics. Fratelli Tutti translates to “all brothers” which was how St. Francis would begin his communications to his religious community. As Catholics, we believe that God is our Father, so it naturally follows that we are meant to be brothers and sisters to each other. Our world is becoming increasingly globalized, Pope Francis focuses much of this encyclical on what it means to have a global community rooted in fraternity, rather than competition or indifference. While most of us are not directly involved in global affairs, we all contribute to either upholding the status quo or advocating for a different way of relating to each other.
Pope Francis draws on the parable of the Good Samaritan to show the way we are called to live out this spirit of fraternity. In this parable, it was the Samaritan that responded to his neighbor’s need, despite the culture at the time that rejected him. The Samaritan recognized that the robbed man was his brother in need. We are called to do the same in our world today, both with individual charitable action and through advocacy to create a more just world. Pope Francis points out that there are only two choices when confronted with someone in need, passing by or stopping to help. In the parable, there are two examples of people passing by because they were thinking about their own needs rather than responding to the suffering of the man robbed. This parable shows us that God is asking us, not only to believe in Him, but enact His love in the world.
I want to highlight one simple way that Pope Francis suggests we could work towards this. He says “ Often nowadays we find neither the time nor the energy to stop and be kind to others, to say “excuse me”, “pardon me”, “thank you”. Yet every now and then, miraculously, a kind person appears and is willing to set everything else aside in order to show interest, to give the gift of a smile, to speak a word of encouragement, to listen amid general indifference. If we make a daily effort to do exactly this, we can create a healthy social atmosphere in which misunderstandings can be overcome and conflict forestalled. Kindness ought to be cultivated; it is no superficial bourgeois virtue. Precisely because it entails esteem and respect for others, once kindness becomes a culture within society it transforms lifestyles, relationships and the ways ideas are discussed and compared. Kindness facilitates the quest for consensus; it opens new paths where hostility and conflict would burn all bridges.” (FT, 224).
Kindness is the first step in building a world where all people are gathered into one family under God our Father. We can each make an effort in the next week and following to put this into practice.
The United States Bishops have put together an overview and summary of the encyclical, available here . The Vatican website has it available here if you would like to read it in full.