In October Pope Francis issued his third and likely final encyclical, Fratelli tutti (“Brothers All”). Its themes are “fraternity and social friendship,” but in addressing these it also discusses nationalism and globalization, immigration and racism, ecological devastation and economic inequality—among many other things. Drawing both from Francis’s previous encyclical, Laudato si’, and from Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in veritate, the new encyclical proposes a model of political economy based on a renewed understanding of what it means to be a neighbor, a citizen, and a Christian. Commonweal asked the philosopher Charles Taylor, the journalist Vinson Cunningham, and the theologians Neomi De Anda and William T. Cavanaugh to comment on Fratelli tutti. Taylor begins the discussion with an overview of the document’s central concerns.
Pope Francis leads his general audience in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, November 25, 2020 (CNS photo/Vatican Media).