In this article we continue our journey with Pope Francis in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti. (My introduction is found here.) We are exploring the Pope’s guidance on how to build the unity in society that we need to solve our challenges with the environment among other social problems.
Fratelli Tutti includes a section entitled, “A New Kind of Politics.” It is a guide for public leadership based on the concepts of fraternity and social friendship. We live in an age of deeply scarred political life, not just in the United States but around the world. This can make the message of Pope Francis on politics sound silly or utopian, which he clearly recognizes. Let’s explore what he is proposing for us.
The first concept the Pope tackles in this section is the definition of a people. He writes about an unhealthy populism that has emerged again in our societies that creates undesirable distinctions between social groups.
The attempt to see populism as a key for interpreting social reality is problematic in another way: it disregards the legitimate meaning of the word “people”. Any effort to remove this concept from common parlance could lead to the elimination of the very notion of democracy as “government by the people”. (157)
As we’ve seen before, Catholic doctrine has a strong preference for democracy over autocracy because it respects human dignity, freedom, and equality. Pope Francis challenges current trends in populism because they create division and domination: some people are better than others, and therefore have power to dominate others. This is against the Christian principle that we are all brothers and sisters before God. He defines the term “people” this way:
The word “people” has a deeper meaning that cannot be set forth in purely logical terms. To be part of a people is to be part of a shared identity arising from social and cultural bonds. And that is not something automatic, but rather a slow, difficult process of advancing towards a common project. (158)
A people share a common identity arising from social and cultural bonds. A people is not defined by race or class or wealth or party affiliation. A people is formed by bonds – united with one another by connections that are social and cultural. A people is united around a common social goal. A people may span across national borders. In this way, we see humanity as God sees us, as his children united by bonds of love.
How do we form and strengthen these bonds? Through love and charity. We must always focus on the realities of human life, not simply on abstract ideas or labels.
Charity, on the other hand, unites both dimensions – the abstract and the institutional – since it calls for an effective process of historical change that embraces everything: institutions, law, technology, experience, professional expertise, scientific analysis, administrative procedures, and so forth….True charity is capable of incorporating all these elements in its concern for others. (164-165)
This is the key point Pope Francis makes in this section: charity, a concern for others and for the common good, must animate everything we do in political life.
This leads to a somewhat stunning term that he uses: political love. Those are not two words we expect to see in the same sentence these days. Pope Francis insists that political life is a noble and necessary endeavor. He asks: “…can our world function without politics? Can there be an effective process of growth towards universal fraternity and social peace without a sound political life?” (176)
Political love is described this way:
Recognizing that all people are our brothers and sisters, and seeking forms of social friendship that include everyone, is not merely utopian. It demands a decisive commitment to devising effective means to this end. Any effort along these lines becomes a noble exercise of charity. For whereas individuals can help others in need, when they join together in initiating social processes of fraternity and justice for all, they enter the field of charity at its most vast, namely political charity. (180)
A charitable political life is an achievable reality for us – we simply need to decide to pursue it. Social friendship and fraternity become ideals that motivate laws and institutions. We see this in laws that promote the common good and attempt to overcome poverty and injustice. Pope Francis gives this example: “If someone helps an elderly person cross a river, that is a fine act of charity. The politician, on the other hand, builds a bridge, and that too is an act of charity.” (186)
This principle applies at every level. At the international level we share a set of global goals, with common interests across all nations for peace, an end to poverty, and care for our common home. The Pope calls for a stronger United Nations with the power to enforce agreements and ensure justice for the poor around the world.
This ideal is universal in scope: no one may be excluded. “Political charity is also expressed in a spirit of openness to everyone.” (190) All members of society must have a voice, as a requirement of justice. This prevents groups from feeling ignored and disenfranchised, and one group from dominating another. There must be a spirit of compromise for laws to be made, and everyone must be represented in the negotiations.
It’s important to note that Pope Francis is not making a proposal for a theocracy, a government formed around a single religion. Charity and love are concepts that are common to all of humanity. Atheists understand charity as well as Christians. Love spans all religions, because it is an essential part of human existence. Fratelli Tutti does not propose a political life based on Catholicism, or even on purely Catholic principles. It calls for all voices to be heard in political decisions, regardless of faith perspective. Political charity applies equally in a Muslim-majority country as well as in a Christian-majority or secular country. A political life built upon serving the needs of others rather than selfish interests is not religious, it is based on a shared sense of what is good and right. The Catholic Church does not call for all governments to be Catholic or even religious.
In this section, Pope Francis is challenging the politics of individualism, partisanship, and domination that is so strong in our time. He is quite explicit about this being the wrong approach. Only a charitable political life will succeed in improving our world. As long as we are divisive and focused on narrow interests, we will continue to fail and move backward. The Pope has given us a powerful instruction manual on public leadership in Fratelli Tutti.