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January 15, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com
Our schools CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI 11
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Reflections on ‘Fratelli Tutti’
The senior students of Bishop McGuinness High School were recently tasked with reading Pope Francis’ third encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti.” They were to summarize each of the eight chapters into two paragraphs each, discuss why it was promulgated on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, and lastly take one issue discussed by the pope and apply it to the things they see in today’s world. They relied on articles from the realms of science, law, politics, and popular culture to support their reflections. — Dr. Danita Ostasiewski
Every person has the right to human dignity. There should be no exclusion or prejudice due to your culture or race. Getting rid of exclusion will lead to a stronger government and prevent corrupt public services. Hazel Healy from the “New Internationalist” wrote the “10 Steps to World Peace.” Healy’s steps are probably the closest to the pope’s ideas and suggestions: sharing wealth fairly, bringing equality between men and women, protecting political space, policy change, climate change, immigration, building an integral peace movement, looking within, control arms sales, and getting rid of exclusion are her 10 steps. The last step, looking within, relates to the change that starts with you first. Also, the media today is spreading so much hate that all those small victories are being overlooked. Healy says, “Media and others that promote ‘them-and-us’ thinking must be challenged to stop spreading hate.” It is essential to see the good and all the evil and to be that light in times of darkness.
According to the Global Peace Index, “the world is less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade.” The conflicts that have arisen in past years were from unresolved situations. Some of the largest contributors to these unsolved issues were in armed conflicts that surfaced in the Middle East. Europe, on the other hand, is one of the most peaceful regions, or one should say, was one of the most peaceful regions. It has also started to deteriorate due to political tensions and worsening relationships between other countries. Immigration has also become a front runner for political issues. The pope does address that there is an immigration issue and that it does need to be resolved, but he does rebut this statement by saying that every person deserves the right to have a better life. To reach world peace, one must better themselves and those surrounding them. This idea will create a ripple effect, spreading kindness and harmony throughout communities. On a global scale, the United Nations will need to come together and collaborate to find out the best ways to end conflicts. — Olivia Martin
Significance of St. Francis of Assisi to the encyclical
Pope Francis, who chose his papal name following St. Francis of Assisi, wrote this encyclical drawing heavily from the ideas of his namesake. This encyclical was promulgated in the city of Assisi, on the feast day of St. Francis, because of how much the writing was inspired by him. While obviously all the saints are very special, St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most good, most famous, and most important saints in the history of the Catholic Church. Francis was initially very wealthy, being born to a cloth merchant in the early 1180s, but after a series of events (including seeing a vision of Jesus telling him to repair His home and getting disowned by his father for daring to take money from the store to help a local chapel) he embarked on the journey to sainthood. He became a beggar and a penitent, going around helping the poor and repairing old chapels, eventually founding his own order to further spread his work. One of the most noteworthy things he did was meet with the Sultan of Egypt, al-Malik al-Kamil, in an attempt to get him to convert, right after one of the Crusades. While the Crusades are largely an unpleasant period in Church history, people like Francis kept the faith pure and true, and while he was unable to convert the sultan, he was one of the few to try to bridge the gap towards peace. That is why this encyclical is so connected to him. He understood that people were all children of God, and he tried to treat everyone kindly, regardless of belief or status. From lepers to Muslims to prostitutes to priests, he went out of his way to help everyone he could, in whatever way he could. This encyclical asks us to be the same way.
One issue that the pope focuses on is the right of religious freedom and peace among the various religions of the world. I especially think that his point regarding the nature of terrorism, and how it is not the fault of religion, but a violent misinterpretation of texts, was very well made. While historically there have been rocky relations between Catholics and non-Christian religions, events such as the Second Vatican Council have served to better things. In “Nostra Aetate,” the Church states, “In her tasks of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, (the Church) considers above all what people have in common and what draws them to fellowship,” meaning that the Church respects the others and wants to ensure peace. In the encyclical, the pontiff restates this to a large extent, and while he offers specific methods and examples of respect, such as his conversation with the imam, he is in line with what the Church has thought since long before he was made pope. That being said, some religions, even certain branches of Christianity, have members guilty of misinterpreting their teachings. Things like terrorism are a result of such misinterpretations, but are not the fault of the religions themselves. “Nostra Aetate” again states, “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.” This basically says that the Church agrees with certain parts of any religion, not rejecting anything objectively true, though they recognize that certain truths might be interpreted differently. The interesting thing about “Nostra Aetate” is that it has specific sections for a variety of different religions, in which the Church details what it respects about some of the others, such as the Jewish people or the Muslim people. At the end of the day, even if we might differ somewhat in our beliefs, we are all children of God, and we cannot treat one person as better or worse simply because of what they believe.
Another example of the issue of religious freedom comes in the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins. The pope writes that people should be free to subscribe to whatever religious beliefs they choose, and that people must respect it, just as other people should respect Christians for being Christians. Regardless of religious affiliation, everyone deserves respect and to be treated with love. In Torcaso v. Watkins, a Maryland law was judged to have violated the First Amendment by forcing political candidates to declare they believed in God in order to run for any position. Whether or not voters prefer a Christian candidate is one thing, but by requiring Christianity as a prerequisite for political office is hugely disrespectful to people of other religions. A Hindu man could have been the most qualified candidate in the world for the position, but because he didn’t believe in God, he wouldn’t even have been allowed to run, until 1961 when the court did away with the law. The court judged that it was giving a preference to one specific type of people, ruling out several other demographics. The pope doesn’t particularly get into the state restricting religious freedom, but he does explain that it is the responsibility of the political systems to preserve the fundamental human right of freedom.
Another document from Vatican II is “Dignitatis Humanae,” which gives a rundown of human rights. The title itself is Latin for “Human Dignity,” and that is truly the point of having rights, to preserve our dignity and freedom. The document explains the Church’s position on the idea of religious freedom, and while there are several points being made, the basic main idea of the document is: “Religious freedom, in turn, which men demand as necessary to fulfill their duty to worship God, has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society. Therefore it leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ.” While religious freedom does not mean you can pick and choose what parts of your particular religion you want to believe, it does mean you have the right to believe what you do without persecution. The pope writes at length about this, as he understands that too many people believe too many different things to truly unite everyone under one banner. Instead of uniting under one religion, he attempts to get us to unite through peace and mutual respect. — Cesar Sosa
No issue is more pressing and requires more international commitment than climate change – so dire is it that we cannot afford to wait even until the pandemic has subsided to press on with ever more aggressive emissions targets than those set in the Paris Agreement. Indeed, since the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic last March, the world has been hit with “more than 100 disasters” related to climate change, says the Red Cross’s “World Disasters Report 2020: Come Heat or High Water.”
Climate change is our world’s first truly global issue, but in some ways the paradigm is even worse than simply “global problem, global solution.” Those who will suffer the most are the least able to make a difference – a truth on multiple levels. On a community scale, Pope Francis reminds us in his previous encyclical, “Laudato Si,” that “many of the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming, and their means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture, fishing and forestry. They have no other financial activities or resources which can enable them to adapt to climate change or to face natural disasters, and their access to social services and protection is very limited” (“Laudato Si,” 25).
On an international scale, the problem becomes both much more intimidating and more applicable for the spiritual transformation Pope Francis is urging. According to UNICEF’s 2017 water report, one in four children under the age of 18 by 2040 – about 600 million kids – will live in “areas of extremely high water stress.” And yet a very small fraction of countries release an overwhelming majority of global carbon emissions while tiny island countries are fighting for their very land’s survival against ever-rising sea levels. Tuvalu may not offer the United States any economic benefits or even be known by many Americans, but our actions will soon drown their country forever, even though their culture has just as much a right to exist as ours. The time is nigh for Francis’ fraternal love – for us to be merciful, just as the Beatitudes tell us. — Joey Clampett
