We publish a contribution by Giuseppe Bottaro, full professor of the history of political doctrines at the University of Messina.
Pope Francis, in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti, tends to emphasize that only the pursuit of the best policies can enable the development of a just global community. This is achieved through the brotherhood of peoples and nations building the true common good through social and political friendship. Since the beginning of his pontificate, the Pope has worked significantly to change a mindset that is now ingrained primarily in the Western world, namely the idea that unregulated economic individualism can be the key to the success of our countries in the least developed parts of the world.
However, in his vision of the social teaching of the Church, the focus is on the concept of political charity, which presupposes the overcoming of the narrow individualism that is very popular in our time, since man and person are related concepts and people cannot be reduced to simple individuals. Charity in the political sphere can help build a new world that is more just, but it always needs truth, which is achieved through faith and reason. Political charity and political friendship must therefore provide positive impulses for building healthier institutions and fairer systems. The concept of human dignity, which must concern every individual in every part of the world, cannot, according to Pope Bergoglio, be separated from an overall conception of the human good, that is, from a vision of the common good that takes into account the well-being of the human community as a whole.
In a rapidly changing international context, adherence to the principles of the Church’s social teaching remains intact
Indeed, given the very rapid changes of the last few years, we must take note: the new economy, the globalization of markets, the recent economic crises, the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s sneaky and senseless attack on Ukraine and the brutal terrorist attack The uprising of Hamas on October 7, 2023, which entailed the harsh reaction of the State of Israel, all represented events whose result is the overturning of many old reference parameters. According to Pope Francis, the role of the Church in this first half of the 21st century may change in form compared to the past, but it must remain unchanged in its substance and in adherence to the fundamental principles of the social teaching of the Church.
In recent years, Pope Francis has in fact proposed revitalizing the liberal system and the market with new entities: social enterprises, non-profit organizations, non-profit cooperatives, that is, the development of the third sector and ethical microfinance. A new but also old idea that goes back to the time of the parishes, to the creation of the Monti di pieta to combat usury, to the cooperatives of the early 20th century inspired by Luigi Rumpfo and to the Franciscan idea of the primacy of the good over the right to constantly seek the common good.
The duty to work for the common good and to welcome those fleeing poverty, war and persecution
All people on earth have not only a general right to the universal destination of goods, but also a natural duty to act in pursuit of the common good, both in the north and in the south of the world. If we acted in this way, we could solve most of the problems related to underdevelopment and the massive migration of men and women from less developed countries to the rich countries of the European Union and the United States. The solution to these global phenomena, according to Pope Francis, can in no way be to indiscriminately reject everyone who legitimately seeks to improve their standard of living and that of their families, or even more so those who need to escape political persecution and war situations.
Integration of migrants and social justice are in contrast to unbridled individualism and egoism
Integration policy must overcome selfishness and the temptation to treat immigrant aliens as second-class individuals who can be deprived of the rights and freedoms universally available to all people solely on the basis of the just needs of public policy. In history, the term citizenship meant being a citizen or not, and above all, being able to participate or not in shaping political decisions. This political dimension has determined two different meanings of citizenship: community citizenship, for which one is a citizen if one belongs to a certain group, if one lives for a long time in a certain area and if one has the same rights and obligations for all; The individualistic variant refers to an abstract view of the citizen as a single individual, the bearer of predominantly economic interests within society.
In Pope Bergoglio’s idea of social justice, it is necessary that today’s Church, the Church of the suburbs, work with all its might to support the first model in order to prevent our society from falling increasingly prey to individualism and unbridled selfishness , which it embodies the opposition of Christian values and all the proposals contained in the social teaching of the Church.
A healthy correction to the radical vision of economic liberalism
However, the affirmation of the common good does not come about through the abolition of private property or the dismantling of the market economy, but rather through the curbing of individualism without rules and that single thought that wants to neglect the positive freedom of concentration at all costs over the negative freedom of the individual. We therefore need a healthy correction to the radical vision of economic liberalism and a modern reimagining of the common good sought, advocated and achieved in social and community life on a global scale.
The politician, the entrepreneur, the ordinary citizen must return to virtue ethics and concern themselves not only with their particular interests or profits, but with the well-being of the entire community. Ultimately a call, adapted to the current historical moment, to virtuous life and civil economy as opposed to selfish and limitless individualism.
The communal vision of the people is rejected by individualistic liberal visions in which society is just a mere sum of economic interests. For Pope Francis, however, it is charity that manages to bring together the political category of the people with the Christian category of others. The Good Samaritan, Francis claims in the encyclical Fratelli tutti, needed an inn, a place, a political institution that could solve this otherwise difficult-to-solve emergency in order to carry out his act of charity. Love for others must be realistic in order to create a more efficient community and world organization.
For a world politics with democratic institutions and a new centrality of the UN
The Pope therefore strongly insists on the need to give greater powers to international organizations representing nations and peoples. World politics must not be made by multinational corporations and large corporations, but by the politics of democratic institutions. Even the tragic history of the war against Ukraine unleashed by Putin’s Russia and the recent events of October 7 with the attack by Hamas members on Israeli civilians show that it is necessary to always give the United Nations, despite everything the only subject to give it a more decisive role so that it can succeed in promoting just conditions of peace between peoples. In the 21st century, the politics of nation states are overwhelmed by finance and global competition, making it necessary to develop international organizations such as the UN that also have effective sanctioning powers.
One cannot help but agree with Pope Francis when he forcefully states that if we seriously want to defeat the painful plagues of war, hunger and poverty, we must implement responsible and coordinated action by peoples, states and supranational institutions to finally achieve something to achieve the realization of a complete and lasting universal brotherhood.
Giuseppe Bottaro
The photo of Pope Francis comes from the Fotogramma agency, Italpress archive.