It is the third
encyclical of Pope Francis followed by Lumen Fidei and Laudato si.
The title and the place in which it is officially signed by the pope are
significant. The title, Fratelli Tutti is taken from the book Admonitions
of St. Francis of Assisi and the place chosen for the publication is the
tomb of St. Francis at the Basilica of Assisi on 3 October, the eve of the
feast of the saint of Assisi. In fact, the opening of the document lauds the
essence of the fraternal love of St. Francis, who would call the sun, my
brother, and the moon, my sister!
The document is composed
of eight chapters. The first chapter presents the current situation of the
world which lacks universal vision of fraternity. The second chapter taking the
parable of the good Samaritan narrates the present scenario mentioned in the
first chapter. The third chapter is a call to come out of one’s closed comfort zone
to an open world. The fourth chapter shows the qualities of a heart that is
open to the whole world beyond one’s own limits. The fifth chapter gives the
action-plan for the ideas mentioned in the previous chapters especially
entering into the political scenario which the Pope calls ‘a better kind of
politics’, a politics of love. The sixth chapter is a vision for a new society
of dialogue and friendship. The seventh chapter deals with some concrete issues
in the society like wars, death penalty, social injustice and social
forgiveness. The last chapter throws some light on the Christian identity amidst
the different religions with their ups and downs for universal brotherhood and
friendship just like the Pope signed a document on ‘Human Fraternity for world
peace and living together’ with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi on 4
February 2019. Another example that this encyclical shows in this regard is the
father of our nation India, Mahatma Gandhi.
The
beauty of this encyclical is its practical proposals in the concrete situations
like giving human dignity in the pandemic situation, the idea of the family of
nations in the international politics, dialogue and friendship in society and,
the unrestricted and public mission of the Church in the world.
In short, Pope Francis
calls every Christian to move from individualistic attitude to an unlimited
heart that can embrace the whole world just like Jesus. He says, “Radical individualism is a virus
that is extremely difficult to eliminate, for it is clever” (Paragraph 105). In
friendship and brotherhood there is no way for individualism. The best part of
our baptism is that we are entering from our individuality into a great
personhood of fellowship. Fratelli Tutti invites this personhood to be
shared to the whole world irrespective of the differences through social
friendship. Let us join the Pope in praying the last words of the encyclical:
“May our hearts be open to all the peoples and nations of the earth. May we
recognize the goodness and beauty that you have sown in each of us, and thus forge
bonds of unit, common projects and shared dreams”. Amen