"Fratelli tutti": Chapter Three

Would you like to know what Pope Francis, Gandalf and Hermione Granger have in common? Pope Francis titles the third chapter of Fratelli Tutti “Envisaging and Engendering an Open World.” I hope to show what Pope Francis envisions as an open world and how that can be engendered. Pope Francis establishes eternal truths as principles and then encourages us to apply these principles in creative ways. The principles are human nature, the centrality of love, human dignity, solidarity, and the universal destination of goods.

Pope Francis begins by establishing an important piece of logic that frames everything that follows. In Scripture we hear that “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Pope Francis echoes Vatican II in saying that “Human beings are so made that they cannot live, develop and find fulfilment except ‘in the sincere gift of self to others.’ Nor can they fully know themselves apart from an encounter with other persons” (87). Couched in this teaching is the centrality of love or charity. St. Thomas defined love as willing the good of another. Pope Francis synthesizes this tradition by saying, “Our affection for others makes us freely desire to see their good” (93). If love is to will the good of the other, and we are made to live in a sincere gift of self, then we are made for love. To make it even more clear, love is always concrete because we love persons not ideas” (115).

From this definition of what a human being is, the church has derived another principle, the dignity of the human person. We have a dignity that is inviolable. No one, once conceived until their death, ceases to be human under any conditions. Further, Pope Francis clarifies that “People have this right even if they are unproductive or were born with or developed limitations. This does not detract from their great dignity as human persons, a dignity based not on circumstance but on the intrinsic worth of their being” (107). He speaks about hidden exiles in those who are disabled or elderly who are members of communities, but are treated as if they were outsiders (98).

Applying the principle of human dignity, Pope Francis reaffirms the call to solidarity. “Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community” (116). In solidarity we see those who are poor, weak, infirm, disabled, elderly, abandoned or different as important and equal parts of our community. He says that this is not to choose a bland universalism that flattens out the rich diversity of human creativity (100) or an abstract and ineffective declaring of equality that is never lived out (104).

Finally, all the goods of the Earth are a gift from God to all of humanity. “The world exists for everyone, because all of us were born with the same dignity” (118). Pope Francis explains that the good of private property is not absolute but is an organizing principle necessary for human society. These two principles are in tension but are not mutually exclusive. The limit of my private property is the needs of those around me. We should see this not so much as a demand that all things be shared but as a principle of justice. Pope Francis refers to the story of the good Samaritan who saw in the assaulted stranger an image of himself and was moved to help him from his own goods (101). Pope Francis then affirms that business activity is “a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving our world” (123). Pope Francis couches human business endeavors as one of God’s gifts to us. In a way, business is part of our stewardship of the goods of the Earth. Through it the human community thrives and the goods of the Earth increase. Properly ordered, the art of business and industry serve humanity, not the other way around.

Now we can put together these four principles to see what Pope Francis envisions as an open world. He says, “There is an aspect of universal openness in love that is existential rather than geographical. It has to do with our daily efforts to expand our circle of friends, to reach those who, even though they are close to me, I do not naturally consider a part of my circle of interests” (97). An open world is not one without borders that dissolves the many peoples into an amorphous mass (100). Instead, open persons strive to expand their circle of care for those around them. Likewise, an open society strives to expand the circle of other communities that they care about. Love is part of human nature, but we cannot love ideas, only other persons. All humans share in the same common human nature which demands a high level of dignity. We see in each other through our shared human nature a brother or sister, and when that person is in serious need, I see my brother or sister in serious need. Pope Francis advocates for changes in systems that hinder or prevent the full flourishing of persons. Whether it is the demoralizing structure of racism (97), dismissal of inefficient persons (98), merely associate relationships (102), or crushing foreign debt (126), there can be no real fraternity if these flaws continue to exist. What exists is a caricature, a farce that masquerades as “freedom, democracy or fraternity” (110).

How then do we engender this open world that Pope Francis envisions? Pope Francis does not spell out a precise plan to establish these changes. This is not what the Catholic Church does. The church is the authority on matters of faith and morals. Pope Francis has laid out eternal truths that are the principles that are applicable to the issue of an open society. It is now up to the lay faithful to apply these principles to the concrete situations of our daily lives to sanctify the temporal order (Apostolicam Actuositatem 2). When we move to the concrete steps of what should be done, we have moved out of the realm of ideas and eternal truths and into the practical world of legitimate compromise. No definitive decision can be given because whatever the best course of action is will change based on the circumstances. The best way forward for our small slice of South Louisiana will by necessity be different from the best way forward even for our neighbors within our state, much less for larger groups of people on the far corners of the world.

What Pope Francis, Gandalf and Hermione Granger have in common is that they all share a special care for those who are weak and discredited in their societal context. Gandalf forms deep friendships with the hobbits who are the most dismissible of the halflings. They have a special dignity that is easy to overlook. Hermione has special concern for the magical creatures who were so badly treated by her new adopted society. She sees herself in them as an outcast. She uses her power to protect these creatures that are mistreated because they are weak. Throughout the Scriptures, we see that God has a special love for the poor and the weak, so much so that Jesus Christ directly connects the salvation of Christians to this love (Matthew 25).

(Father Alex Gaudet is currently serving as pastor of Christ the Redeemer Church parish in Thibodaux.)