‘Fratelli Tutti’: Pope Francis’ Response to Current Global Political Realities

National Catholic Register, 09 October 2020

Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, not unlike Laudato Si before it, is more a political than a social document.

The recent encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti (FT), is another literary behemoth. Its massive size means that, upon an initial reading, it is not possible to take in all of the specific items covered — from immigration to criminal justice to war and peace. It might be better, then, to situate FT broadly in the tradition of Catholic social teaching, in light of the Holy Father’s own magisterium and as a response to current global political realities. 

Eight years in to his pontificate, the Holy Father has evidently decided that bigger is better, producing relatively few magisterial texts but of truly gigantic size. Pope Francis has now authored four of the five longest documents in the entire history of the papacy: Amoris Laetitia (approximately 60,000 words), Evangelii Gaudium (52,000), Fratelli Tutti (45,000) and Laudato Si (42,000).

Staggering length combined with sprawling reach renders it difficult for any particular element to shine through. For example, the 5,000-word section in Evangelii Gaudium on delivering brief and engaging homilies likely would have been more effective in helping preachers if it had been a separate document on that specific theme.

From Social to Political

Pope Francis explicitly identifies FT as a “social encyclical,” meaning that it belongs to the tradition of papal teaching on the social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of common life begun by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 (Rerum Novarum) and continued by the intervening popes over the last 130 years.

That tradition has often seen subsequent encyclicals issued on the anniversary dates of Rerum Novarum. Pope Pius XI did so on the 40th anniversary in 1931, St. John XXIII on the 70th in 1961, St. Paul VI on the 80th in 1971, and St. John Paul II on both the 90th (1981) and 100th (1991). It would have thus followed that Francis would issue a social encyclical next year, in 2021 for the 130th anniversary.

Publication now a case can be made was likely chosen for political reasons, to contribute to the issues at stake in the coming U.S. election. Pope Francis has made explicit his desire to enter into political debates. In 2014, he timed his pilgrimage to the Holy Land explicitly to support the initiatives of then Israeli President Shimon Peres, who took a different line than Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In 2015, his encyclical Laudato Si was published ahead of the Paris climate conference, with the intent of influencing the outcome of that meeting.

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