Today's Marists 2024 Volume 8, Issue 2

published in 2013 prior to these two
encyclicals, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy
of the Gospel) set out a vision for renewing
the Church and its mission in the spirit
of Vatican II. He sees Fratelli Tutti as the
foundation for building the relational base
for these efforts but more importantly, for
bringing about a global fraternity among
nations, peoples and religions. In these
writings by Pope Francis, we again hear
the call of the Letters to the Ephesians
and the Colossians where we began.
Pope Francis regards these three Papal
documents as a trilogy for the Church and
humanity in facing the challenges of our
times.
Fratelli Tutti is both a social encyclical
and a contemporary updated reading
of Catholic social teaching on current
global issues. This Encyclical explores the
development of a culture of peace and
dialogue for building a world order of
borderless love across the face of the earth
in the face of war, spread of nuclear arms
and a host of other concerns in our world.
Chapter 12 of Fratelli Tutti is dedicated
to reconciliation as the way through all of
this.
Pope Francis has a dream that he
expresses in Fratelli Tutti:
“Let us dream, then, as a single
human family, as fellow travelers
sharing the same flesh, as children
of the same earth, which is our
common home, each of us bringing
the richness of his or her beliefs
and convictions, each of us with
his or her own voice, brothers and
sisters all.”
Pope Francis is clearly a “dreamer” like
the two Joseph’s of the Scriptures. He may
be written off by many for this reason. But
Joseph in the Book of Genesis dreamed
himself into one of the most practical
roles of all, saving the chosen people
from starvation by his unimaginable rise
to the position of second to the Pharaoh
after cruel abandonment by his brothers.
The same holds true for St. Joseph. He
was a very practical man whose dreams
made him the protector of the Word of
God himself in his early life among us.
As the Angel assures Mary, the Mother
of Reconciliation, and our inspiration as
Marists, “Nothing is impossible with God.”
(Lk. 1:37)
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