A fairer world

The pandemic "is not a punishment from God, it is the reality that groans and rebels". The global health emergency has served to demonstrate that "no one is saved alone": it will only be possible to get out of it all together, through the path of solidarity. Pope Francis affirms this in All Brothers the "social" encyclical published on 4 October, the feast of Francis of Assisi, the saint who inspired it. Bergoglio wrote it to "dream as one humanity", citing Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and blessed Charles de Foucauld.

Covid-19 has highlighted “our false securities. Beyond the various answers given by the various countries, the inability to act together appeared evident", is the Pope's denunciation. Hence the relaunch:" By recognizing the dignity of every human person, we can revive a worldwide aspiration to fraternity".
Bergoglio indicates the concrete paths that can be taken by those who want to build a more just world. A need that the Coronavirus epidemic has amplified, raising "the awareness of being a world community that sails in the same boat, where the evil of one goes to the detriment of all". The papal reflection is based on "everything is connected", so it is "difficult to think that this world disaster is not related to our way of placing ourselves with respect to reality, pretending to be absolute masters of one's own life and of everything that exists".

Francis, however, does not mean «to say that it is a kind of divine punishment. 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 ».
Brothers all does not limit itself to "considering fraternity a wish", comments Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, "but outlines a culture to be applied to international relations".


Domenico Agasso jr
NP November 2020