Pope Francis to us: ‘You got mail’

In his new encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti,” Pope Francis affirms and applies the principles of Catholic social teaching to the “new things” of 2020: a global pandemic, an economic crisis, political polarization and social isolation and exclusion. The pope insists that those who are poor or vulnerable, those who live with disabilities or discrimination and immigrants and refugees are not issues or problems but sisters and brothers, part of one human family.

Through the centuries, popes have written encyclicals on important issues, sometimes addressed to bishops, other times to all Catholics, more recently to all people. As its name implies, an encyclical is a “circular letter” to be spread throughout a community. (The word comes from the Greek egkyklios, with kyklos meaning a circle). By using the encyclical format, Francis is announcing he has something important to say and he wants people to pay attention.

This letter is addressed to everyone: women and men, Catholics and people of every faith and no faith, women and men of every nation, race, and ethnicity, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, every member of the human family. In the first sentence and throughout, the letter refers to “fratelli tutti” (all brothers and sisters). The document covers a range of topics from digital culture, migrants, economics, nuclear weapons and other global issues.

As the world grapples with a pandemic the new papal document calls for a politics that rejects the “virus” of radical individualism and builds up the common good, with the 83-year-old pope offering the gospel story of the Good Samaritan and the figure of St. Francis of Assisi, his namesake, as guides. The encyclical is an attempt to bring a “bleeding and broken world back to health” and is “a devastating challenge to our economic, political and ecological life.”

Francis explains his encyclical was inspired by “brothers and sisters who are not Catholic,” such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and India’s Mahatma Gandhi. He calls for all religions to build up human fraternity. Early on in the encyclical, he references St. Francis of Assisi’s 1219 peace mission to cross the lines of the crusades and meet the sultan of Egypt in a bid to end the conflict.

Laying out a comprehensive vision for how the world should change after the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis imagines societies that are more caring, more focused on helping those in need and fundamentally less attached to the principles of market capitalism. Among things the pope puts up for discussion: trickle-down economics, the world’s unfair distribution of wealth, continued use of the just war theory and the death penalty.

The encyclical expresses strong views on capital punishment, war and economics, but the pope writes with nuance. He offers no simple solutions, instead encouraging dialog and inclusion: everyone must be brought into the decision-making process to deal with the world’s challenges. He speaks eloquently of kindness that involves “speaking words of comfort, strength, consolation and encouragement” and not “words that demean, sadden, anger or show scorn.”

Father Paul Magnano is parish priest in the Skagit Valley Catholic Churches. His reflections on “Fratelli Tutti” will continue next week.