David Quinn
Free copies of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano with the front page about Pope Francis' encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" are distributed by volunteers at the end of the Angelus in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.
Photo: CNS The Pope is asking the world to tap into the wellspring of the Faith, writes David Quinn
Francis’ latest encyclical is a call to universal brotherhood and sisterhood, or fraternity. Its title is Fratelli Tutti – brothers all, a phrase associated with St Francis of Assisi, after whom the Pope named himself.
The idea of universal brother-hood is one we now take for granted, even if a lot of the time it is observed more in theory rather than in practice. Fraternity is a willingness to see every single member of the human race as our brothers and sisters, as our moral equals to whom we are in some way united, and with whom we have a shared moral bond.
But the concept is actually a deeply religious one. It is very hard to derive the idea of universal brotherhood from atheism or secularism. Yes, an atheist can say we share a common humanity, but it is much harder for an atheist to then conclude that we are all of infinite and equal moral value if we are simply the products of blind evolution, consisting only of matter. If this is so, then where does the concept of our infinite, intrinsic and equal moral worth come from?
Christians, on the other hand, believe we are all made in the image and likeness of God. This makes us more than mere matter, more than the chance by-products of a blank, uncaring universe. If we are all made in the image and likeness of God, then every one of us is also a child of God, meaning everyone is morally and spiritually our brother or sister.
This is what gives Christianity its universal character. The very word ‘catholic’ means universal. It invites us to look beyond our families, clans, tribes and nations.
Liberalism
Secular liberalism is also a universal creed, because it believes in universal human rights. But this comes from the earlier Judeo-Christian belief that we are all morally equal and possess equal dignity. The idea of universal fraternity comes from this. Secular liberalism rests on a Judeo-Christian foundation even if it no longer admits it and sometimes denies it.
Even the rallying call of the French Revolution, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’) has Christian roots. It is no coincidence that this call arose in a country formed for centuries by Christian thought, even if the French Revolution turned on the institutional Church for being too close to the ancien regime, that is to the monarchy and nobility.
In fact, in his new encyclical, Pope Francis draws attention to a meeting he had in Abu Dubai last year with the Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb. Both men declared that “God has created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and has called them to live together as brothers and sisters”.
Pope Francis says: “The present encyclical takes up and develops some of the great themes raised in the document that we both signed. I have also incorporated, along with my own thoughts, a number of letters, documents and considerations that I have received from many individuals and groups throughout the world.”
The great threat to fraternity is always some kind of tribal politics or vested interest.
The ‘tribe’ in this sense can be your nation, or your social class, or your sex, or your ethnic group or your religion.
Both the left and the right can divide people into different ‘tribes’ and encourage tribalism. The right is commonly drawn to nationalism, and at the extremes to racism.
The left is drawn to a politics that divides the world into ‘oppressors’ and ‘oppressed’. Men are seen as oppressors, so are white people, the wealthy, straight people. Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, is often classed as an oppressor.
America is currently torn between different kinds of tribes on both left and right, and the same type of politics is to be found in much of Europe”
Martin Luther King Jr, a Lutheran pastor as well as a civil rights campaigner, invited us to look past the colour of someone’s skin and consider only the content of their character.
Today’s racial politics seems to consider nothing but the colour of our skin, and invites white people to see themselves as somehow guilty of racism, or historical privilege, in ways they can’t imagine, meaning they need to be ‘educated’, they need to become ‘woke’.
America is currently torn between different kinds of tribes on both left and right, and the same type of politics is to be found in much of Europe.
This is not to say politics should not include a certain amount of tension. Consensus can be an extremely bad thing if it is the wrong kind of consensus. We can see this in the Dáil right now as it rushes pell-mell towards embracing assisted suicide with almost no debate. On this point, we need far more tension, if by that we mean a proper and healthy clash of views.
Families
We also have to acknowledge that it is a very human thing to relate to your own first, starting with your own families. A parent’s duty to their children is one of the strongest there is, and few object when a parent devotes far more time and energy to looking after their own children, than to other children.
(An aside: the celibacy of priests and religious means they are deliberately freed from the duties involved in having a family of their own, and can give that same time and energy and sense of fraternity to everyone.)
Our strong obligation to our family does not negate our obligations to others. It simply points out that we have different levels of obligation that begin in most cases with our families, and then fan outwards. Our sense of fraternity starts there, and then extends to our extended family, our neighbours, our friends and so on.
The radical insight of Christianity is that the web of mutual obligations includes absolutely everyone, hence Christ’s exhortation to see his face in everyone.
This is why Christianity throughout its history has set up vast charitable outreaches. Pagan religion and philosophy did nothing comparable because they did not have that same idea of universal fraternity.
Pope Francis rightly invites a divided world to renew its commitment to fraternity. In doing so, he is tapping into the one of the very deepest wellsprings of Christianity.