The Pope's New Encyclical: A Surrender?
The Pope's Encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" ("Brothers All") sadly seems more a massive and unwieldy political document than a religious guide to the Catholic faithful.
The encyclical's intended audience appears to be secular world rather than people of faith. The 43,000-word tome contains almost no discussion of Catholic dogmas. Although the Pontiff's diagnosis of the world's ills seems accurate enough, unfortunately his proposed antidotes -- equality of result rather than equality of opportunity and individual liberty, the bedrocks of Western democracies -- would seriously threaten freedom.
The Pope, for instance, implies that the twilight of the planet's centuries old diplomatic nation-state system has arrived, prompting the need for a more globalist political system. Regrettably, that usually brings with it no transparency, no accountability and no recourse. Think of the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court or the European Union.
The Pope denigrates the concept of nationalism by referring to it as "local narcissism." His support for "open borders" would deny nations the right to sovereignty over their national territories. Pope Francis, a lifelong priest of the Jesuit order, appears to be calling for a system of international organizations that would possess the power to override the will of individual states and have the potential to become a global despotism.
The Pope also makes no secret of his opposition to the global capitalist free market economy. He proposes instead that wealthy countries form a seamless bond with the have-not peoples of the global south. He implies that a redistribution of the world's wealth is a moral obligation, and should replace free economies that promote growth and jobs and have done more to cure poverty than any other historical development.
The problem with redistribution, of course, is, as Margaret Thatcher famously said, "Soon you run out of other people's money." After everyone has been made equally medium-poor, then where, without incentives for hard work and production, are further disbursements supposed to come from? Think of the former Soviet Union, Cuba or Venezuela.
The encyclical's economic platform for a more just world codifies as moral the redistribution of wealth between wealthy and impoverished regions of the world
The pope concludes, erroneously, that the free market capitalist system marginalizes the impoverished and disabled and should therefore give way to a system that provides for a more equitable distribution of earth's resources. He reminds the public that the Church has never defended the right to private property as an absolute. Instead, he recommends that it should be curtailed to serve the commonweal. The approach seems to turn a blind eye to the Church's vast accumulation of property and other goods. Would the Church perhaps care to redistribute that?
In the Pope's encyclical, the "stranger" is always a desperate, impoverished refugee seeking solace, never an aggressor with the will to conquer. Francis urges native people to be patient with newcomers so that they will more easily seek assimilation. Often the reality, however, particularly in Europe, which has recently experienced a massive influx of Muslims, is that many of the "strangers" choose isolation and, seemingly, a desire to have the native population assimilate to them, along, sometimes, with dreams of supplanting the dominant religious or ethnic strain.
Another odd and troubling aspect of this encyclical is the textual references to the personal relationship between Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb of Cairo's Al-Azhar. The unveiling ceremony of the encyclical, it turns out, was attended by the Grand Imam's advisor, Judge Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Salem. There is no mention of representatives of other faiths at the ceremonials associated with the publication of the encyclical.
That detail is noteworthy, as "Fratelli Tutti" meticulously seems to avoid any issue that might offend non-Christians, especially Muslims. Francis nowhere speaks of Jesus as God the Father made incarnate, which the Koran denounces as polytheistic blasphemy. There is no detailed discussion of Christ's passion and death sacrifice, which Muslims deny took place. There is no impetus in "Fratelli Tutti" to evangelize, no stimulus to spread the Gospel. Is that because proselytizing might have offended some non-Christians? The whole concept of the Holy Trinity is reduced to an oblique poetical reference in an afterthought prayer following the encyclical's text reading: "O God, Trinity of love." following the textual end of the encyclical. This obscure and solitary mention of the Trinity, which Christians honor every time they make the "Sign of the Cross," seems possibly a deliberate omission not to offend the sensitivities of others, perhaps Muslims, who embrace the idea of "tawhid" (the absolute oneness and indivisibility of Allah).
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