"Reflections on Fratelli tutti: Something Old, Something New, Much Ado about Not too Much" by Charles J. Russo

Reflections on Fratelli tutti

Something Old, Something New, Much Ado about Not too Much

Charles J. Russo

This article is part of our “Fratelli Tutti: Reflections on Pope Francis’s Call for Fraternity in Law and Religion” series.
If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here.

On October 3, 2020, Pope Francis took the unusual step of traveling to the birthplace, home, and tomb of his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi, to sign¹ his third encyclical, or papal pastoral letter,² Fratelli tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship,³ after celebrating Mass in the crypt of the lower basilica.⁴ The first time that a pontiff signed an encyclical outside of Rome,⁵ Pope Francis officially released the letter, which he reportedly started writing before the COVID-19 pandemic struck this past spring,⁶ in Rome on Sunday, October 4, 2020,⁷ the feast day of St. Francis.

At eight chapters, 272 numbered paragraphs, and an English text of more than 38,000 words, almost 43,000 words including its 288 footnotes, Fratelli tutti is lengthy. Perhaps the best that can be said about Fratelli tutti is that it is a mixed bag. Controversial from the start, the Pope was criticized for his tone deafness because the encyclical’s non-inclusive title, translated as “Brothers All,” fails to refer to women.⁸

Fratelli tutti is typical of the rambling style that Pope Francis seems to prefer as he addresses something old in the form of traditional Church teachings and something new by reflecting on current issues facing the global community. He intended Fratelli tutti to serve as “a new vision of fraternity and social friendship.”⁹ Interspersed among his spiritual gems, though, are instances of what can be described as his “shooting from the hip,”¹⁰ thereby creating confusion,¹¹ pontificating on issues beyond his expertise, such as market capitalism¹² as he dispenses unsought advice on secular concerns better left to experts in those fields.

Key among the Pope’s insights on what can be described as traditional topics are the need for love to build bridges as reflected in the parable of the Good Samaritan,¹³ virtues present in the parable as well as throughout Jesus’ teachings as reflected in the Gospels, hope,¹⁴ kindness,¹⁵ the value and meaning of forgiveness,”¹⁶ and reconciliation, which the Pope described as “central themes in Christianity and, in various ways, in other religions.”¹⁷ Further, Pope Francis followed the lead of his predecessors, Saint Pope John Paul II¹⁸ and Pope Benedict XVI, who cautioned¹⁹ about the need to guard against the “dictatorship of relativism.”²⁰

Between its brief opening and its final reflections on interfaith leaders who influenced his thinking, in Fratelli tutti, the Pope saw it as his duty to remind Catholics about the need to remain faithful.

Not surprisingly, Pope Francis criticized the evils of “human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime.”²¹ Yet, he made only two, brief passing references to abortion, another key moral issue of the day, one in decrying the contemporary “throwaway world,”²² wherein those who have are not often respectful of the needs of those who do not have, and the other when addressing slavery.²³ Perhaps Pope Francis avoided an outright condemnation of abortion for fear of placing too much emphasis on this one subject so he could address other unresolved pressing concerns.²⁴

Among the contemporary and enduring topics Pope Francis addressed are meeting the needs of individuals and societies impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the plight of immigrants²⁵ while reiterating his opposition to both capital punishment²⁶ and war.²⁷ Another recurring topic was the global economy wherein the pontiff’s critique of market capitalism²⁸ described it as “this dogma of neoliberal faith.”²⁹ He was also critical of some of market capitalism’s technological accoutrements.³⁰

These comments suggest that he is out of his depth when commenting on economics in his capacity as a pastoral leader because he offers one-sided criticisms without recognizing the good that capitalism has done for untold millions, if not billions, of people. Fratelli tutti thus amounts to much ado about not too much, because the pontiff moved beyond the realm of being a spiritual shepherd in his wide-ranging musings.

Pope Francis opened his encyclical with the words of his beloved namesake, Francis of Assisi, Fratelli tutti, to speak to his brothers and sisters in faith as a way of accentuating the need for fraternity and social friendship. Moving into the body of his encyclical, Pope Francis set the tone for the remainder of his letter by praising St. Francis for his 1219 trip to Egypt to engage in interfaith dialogue with Sultan Malik-el-Kamil, a journey made difficult both by Francis’s poverty and the dangers associated with traveling even as the Fifth Crusade was being fought.³¹

Suggesting that he was modeling his own behavior on that of his namesake, the Pope reflected on how deeply he valued interfaith dialogue. Accordingly, he highlighted how he was influenced positively by his meeting in Abu Dhabi in early February 2019 with Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb. Together the two religious leaders released a document and joint statement that “God has created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and has called them to live together as brothers and sisters.”³²

Between its brief opening and its final reflections on interfaith leaders who influenced his thinking, in Fratelli tutti, the Pope saw it as his duty to remind Catholics about the need to remain faithful. Pope Francis was up to the task of exhorting Catholics to remain faithful by applying their faith in action. Still, he would have been well-advised to have toned down some of his critiques, especially of market capitalism, because while it is far from perfect, it continues to secure untold benefits for many throughout the world.

It would be remiss not to applaud a particular strength of Fratelli tutti, namely how the Pope reminded readers that despite the pandemic, “God continues to sow abundant seeds of goodness in our human family.”³³ He eloquently encouraged all to remain hopeful and thankful for the many whose interwoven work lives, whether as “doctors, nurses, pharmacists, storekeepers and supermarket workers, cleaning personnel, caretakers, transport workers, … essential services and public safety [workers who] … make it clear that… [t]hey understood that no one is saved alone.”³⁴ In this way, Pope Francis reiterated one of the central tenets of the Christian tradition, namely that people are saved in and through their faith communities. This is one of the letter’s high points, as Pope Francis exhorts people to retain their faith even as dark clouds have appeared on the horizons of human life.³⁵

In his encyclical, Pope Francis contributed worthwhile reflections on the pandemic, viewing it as a global concern needing a global solution.³⁶ Positing that national borders offer limited protection from COVID-19, he segued to one of the most challenging issues of the day for governmental leaders, namely, the status of immigration and migrants, seeking “a form of global governance with regard to movements of migration.”³⁷

Emphasizing that human rights should not be subject to boundaries, Pope Francis explained that “[m]any migrants have fled from war, persecution and natural catastrophes. Others, immigrants described as “seeking opportunities for themselves and their families. They dream of a better future and they want to create the conditions for achieving it.”³⁸ Decrying that “in some host countries, migration causes fear and alarm, often fomented and exploited for political purposes,”³⁹ he “ask[ed] everyone to move beyond those primal reactions”⁴⁰ by welcoming migrants.

While one can respect the Pope’s sense of Christian charity and humanitarianism, he does not distinguish between lawful and unlawful migration. Neither does Pope Francis address the need to ensure that immigrants respect the laws of host nations by being mindful of the rights and freedoms of their residents and others as identified in internationally accepted instruments and national laws,⁴¹ even as they can enjoy the customs and cultures of their home countries,⁴² subject only to the need for public safety.⁴³ Legal immigrants, of course, remain free to enjoy the customs and cultures of their home countries in their new countries.⁴⁴

Another reality the Pope overlooks is that national governments have systems in place regulating legal entry for immigrants, including exemptions for those seeking to escape dire conditions such as religious persecution. At the risk of becoming a literalist in biblical interpretation, it is worth recalling that Jesus did say that it was proper to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”⁴⁵

Based on Jesus’ words, national leaders have the duty to ensure the well-being and security of their own citizens and legal residents by having processes in place regulating immigration. Certainly, the Pope must realize that only by following their duty to control their national borders to monitor the flow of immigrants can leaders plan accurately for such necessities as safety, schooling, and health care in a way that allows them to protect the common good of all lawful residents of their countries. Against this background, the Pope’s plea for apparently unfettered immigration must be viewed with grave caution as it reflects his antipathy for “nationalism”⁴⁶ as he seeks a world “without borders.”⁴⁷ The Pope should have qualified his support by speaking about legal immigrants because if national leaders allow people in without some form of background checks, they risk opening Pandora’s Boxes of violence if they inadvertently admit terrorists who seek to kill and harm many innocent individuals in their countries.

Aware of the need to serve their own populations while considering the plight of immigrants, the United States Supreme Court, for instance, addressed how to achieve such a balance in a pair of cases from Texas, albeit in the context of education. In 1982, the Court upheld the rights of the children of undocumented residents to attend public schools in Plyler v. Doe.⁴⁸ The court found that children could not be accountable for the proverbial sins of their parents by being denied access to public education because, in accompanying their families and/ or being born after their parents arrived, they did not choose to enter the country.

American Catholics will be unreceptive to Fratelli tutti’s criticism of market capitalism because, as imperfect a system as it is, it has improved many of their lives with the upshot that they will reject this message as an unwarranted attack on their way of life.

A year later, the Court acknowledged the wisdom of enforcing reasonable residency rules in Martinez v. Bynum. According to the Court, “a bona fide residence requirement, appropriately defined and uniformly applied, furthers the substantial state interest in assuring that services provided for its residents are enjoyed only by residents.”⁴⁹ In so ruling, the Court forbade an eight-year-old boy, who was born in Texas, and as such, an American citizen, from attending public school tuition-free, because by living with his sister, who was his custodian, but not his guardian, he failed to satisfy the state’s residency requirement.

On another matter, it is unclear why the Pope, a product of socialism, thought it necessary to use his powerful teaching authority as leader of the universal Roman Catholic Church to make general and unfounded criticisms about capitalism, of which he apparently knows little and understands less.⁵⁰ Writing that “the Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property,”⁵¹ Pope Francis thereby reduced capitalism, a system that has lifted untold millions from poverty while allowing members of societies where economic freedom is available to fund much of the Church’s good work, to a straw man⁵² which he then rebutted with generalizations.⁵³ One can only wonder where the Roman Catholic Church and its people, let alone believers in other Christian faiths and religions, would be without the donations made possible by capitalism or the hard-won benefits of peace won by war, because without the sacrifices of millions, tyranny would rule many parts of the world.

On the subject of war, Pope Francis issued the pacifist declaration that “…we can no longer think of war as a solution…. Never again war!”⁵⁴ In so doing, Pope Francis sought to rebut the “just war” theory advanced by St. Augustine. To be clear, the Pope accurately observed that “[w]ar is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.”⁵⁵ Clearly, war is an unspeakable horror that must be used as a last resort, if then, during an era when human annihilation as a result of the use of “nuclear, chemical and biological weapons”⁵⁶ remains a frightening possibility.

An apt retort to Pope Francis’ well-intentioned, if utopian, opposition to war can be found in a quote attributed to the Eighteenth-century Irish parliamentarian and conservative theorist, Edmund Burke: “[t]he only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”⁵⁷ Given Burke’s words, are there not some things still worth fighting for? While it is a stretch to suggest that it is the same as war, even Jesus resorted to a controlled form of violence when he overturned the money-changers’ tables in the Temple at Jerusalem.⁵⁸

In this way, Pope Francis reiterated one of the central tenets of the Christian tradition, namely that people are saved in and through their faith communities. This is one of the letter’s high points, as Pope Francis exhorts people to retain their faith even as dark clouds have appeared on the horizons of human life.

Readily conceding that war should be a last resort, it would be interesting to imagine what a conversation about it would be like between Saint Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis. It is doubtful that Saint Pope John Paul II, who risked his life resisting the evils of Nazism in the battle to free not only his native Poland, but also Western Europe, would see eye-to-eye with Pope Francis on this issue. One can only wonder what might have become of St. Peter’s, the Vatican, and the good works of the Roman Catholic Church had the United States and the Allies not prevailed over the Nazis.

In the penultimate paragraph of Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis explained that “I felt inspired particularly by Saint Francis of Assisi, but also by others of our brothers and sisters who are not Catholics: Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and many more.”⁵⁹ He identified his final source of inspiration as Blessed Charles de Foucauld,⁶⁰ a former military officer who once lost his faith, but regained it and was ordained a priest, working and living among the poor in North Africa before he was murdered in his home.⁶¹

In sum, it remains to be seen what, if any, impact Fratelli tutti has on the lives of Catholics in the United States. As an invitation to Christian fraternity and social friendship, most American Catholics are likely to heed this uplifting dimension of the encyclical. Conversely, the encyclical’s progressive tone, evidenced by its exhortation to “liberty, equality, and fraternity,”⁶² an earmark of the French Revolution, and wanting to rely on “the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth,”⁶³ is likely to be largely ignored by many faithful American Catholics who support the Church financially and spiritually.

Moreover, mindful of the adage that “one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar,” Fratelli tutti’s critical assessment of market capitalism, however well-intended, is likely to fall on deaf ears. American Catholics will be unreceptive to Fratelli tutti’s criticism of market capitalism because, as imperfect a system as it is, it has improved many of their lives with the upshot that they will reject this message as an unwarranted attack on their way of life.⁶⁴ ♦

Charles J. Russo, M.Div. J.D., Ed.D., is Panzer Chair in Education & Director, Ph.D. Program in Educational Leadership, School of Education and Health Sciences, Research Professor of Law, School of Law, University of Dayton, USA. Russo is also an Adjunct Professor in the Law School of the Sydney campus of Notre Dame University of Australia.

Recommended Citation

Russo, Charles J. “Reflections on Fratelli tutti: Something Old, Something New, Much Ado about Not too Much.” Canopy Forum, November 25, 2020. https://canopyforum.org/2020/11/25/reflections-on-fratelli-tutti-something-old-something-new-much-ado-about-not-too-much/

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