Siblings All, Signs of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Cardinal Michael Czerny is a Czech-born Canadian Jesuit, named a cardinal in 2019. He was a special secretary for the Amazon Synod and, since 2022, serves as Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.


Christian Barone is a priest of the diocese of Noto in Sicily working in Rome. With a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Gregorian University, he lectures in its department of fundamental theology as well as at other theological faculties.

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Our intention with this book is to introduce the 2021 Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis, significantly entitled Fratelli Tutti, which we translate as “Siblings All.” In doing so, we first profile the work and teaching of the Argentinian pope—brought to Rome from the peripheries “almost from the ends of the earth”1 —to highlight his continuity with the affirmations of the Second Vatican Council.

We will try to highlight the features that distinguish the “social” Magisterium of Pope Francis without claiming to be exhaustive or wanting to be apologetic.

Two preliminary observations may be useful in order to contextualize what we intend to develop in the course of this reflection

The first premise is drawn from the text of Dei Verbum, in which the Council Fathers affirm that God has spoken to humanity with “deeds and words [gestis verbisque]” (DV 2). In describing the economy of Revelation, they wanted to emphasize the circularity (perichoresis) and the intimate connection between what God says and what God does.

It is important to note that they chose to give precedence to deeds, so as to emphasize that in the divine action it is the events of salvation history that “manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words” (DV 2).

We can apply this hermeneutic criterion to the pontificate of Pope Francis. In order to understand his Magisterium, it is not enough to refer to the speeches or documents promulgated in the course of his papacy, but it is necessary to look at his actions. We need only think, for example, of the visit of Francis to the migrants who arrived on decrepit fishing boats or rubber dinghies in Lampedusa; of the meeting with women freed from the prostitution racket with the help of the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII; of the stop in Thailand to be close to the children who are victims of sex tourism; of the numerous apostolic trips in which he has been a “pilgrim” in various parts of the world; and also of the many gestures of hope expressed during and since the COVID-19 pandemic and all its upheaval.2

It is the concrete signs and actions that he has offered since the beginning of his Petrine ministry that illuminate the words that he has addressed during these years to Catholics, to Christians of other confessions, to the faithful of other religions, to believers and not, and to all people of good will.

The second premise is more general and concerns the way in which the Church has implemented the documents of the Councils that it has celebrated down through the centuries. History teaches us that not everything decreed by a Council is implemented in ecclesial practice in the same way and at the same time. We can easily see this by looking, for example, at the Constitutions promulgated by Vatican II; the liturgical reform, outlined by Sacrosanctum Concilium, was more readily accepted than the ecclesial renewal proposed by Lumen Gentium.

Over the past fifty years, the Church has seen a theologicalpastoral “custom” take root that—de facto—has represented a truly selective interpretation of the Council. This shows us how, at least up until now, Vatican II has only been implemented in part and that much work still remains to be done.3

We can understand some of the fundamental choices of the Magisterium of Francis and his insistence on certain points of the Council as an attempt to follow up and find a way of implementing some of what remains unfinished: to implement those things that the Council documents indicate but which have not yet been fully integrated into the Church’s living experience.

Among these, we can situate Francis’s numerous reminders of the need for greater collegiality among bishops, a more significant role on the part of national episcopal conferences, and a renewal of the role played by the papacy. Also to be included are his continual references to various issues, such as the importance of women, the role of the laity, the preferential option for the poor, the dangers of clericalism, and the damage caused by the economy of exclusion.

The point here is not just to refer generally to some of the cornerstones of conciliar teaching, which Francis is obviously committed to promoting. We must also ask questions that aim to probe deeper into the link between the “Church that ‘goes forth,’” which he has strongly desired, and the theological horizon traced by Vatican II. What elements enable us to see continuity in the teaching of the Church? What are the “interrupted pathways” of the Council that Francis wants the Church to rediscover in order to regain momentum today? In which direction is Francis trying to guide the future of the Church?

In order to answer these questions, it may be helpful to highlight four aspects of Francis’s Magisterium that are not only deeply rooted in the transformation initiated by Vatican II, but that serve as an authentic way of interpreting the conciliar event itself.

Pastoral life as intrinsic to, not derivative of, doctrinal elaboration

Francis has made his own the most original intuition of John XXIII, which convinced him of the need to convene a council: prioritizing the good of souls and the need to respond to the necessities of the present time. Contrary to those who saw this pastoral life as something that followed doctrinal formulation, as if it were a practical application of principles formulated by deduction, John understood pastoral life as a constitutive and intrinsic dimension of doctrine.4

This same conviction is manifested in Pope Francis, who on several occasions has highlighted the need to overcome the “divorce” between theology and pastoral life, between faith and life.5 Rather than being a “teacher” who reiterates the wellestablished principles of doctrine, Francis has chosen to present himself as a “pastor or shepherd” who accompanies his flock and guides it towards a more authentic fidelity to the Gospel. For this reason, since the first months of his pontificate, he has encouraged the Church to emerge from its withdrawal into itself and to stop speaking in a self-referential manner, because only by “going out and risking” does one gain concrete experience of what one is called to proclaim.6

This is why the mystery of the encounter with the Lord, true God and true man, is at the heart of the Magisterium of Francis. Recovering the kerygmatic nature of faith (EG 164) protects it from any theoretical meandering, bringing it back to the truth of that relationship with Christ that springs from the initial proclamation of the Gospel. Faith is not an ideology, but that concrete bond that we establish with the Lord and that impels us forward to meet others.7 The establishment of this personal relationship within the Church gives rise to the desire to change one’s life and the choice to bear joyful witness to Christ’s love for the world.8

In this sense, both Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato Si’ develop what Pope Paul VI had already expressed in Evangelii Nuntiandi. Stressing the importance of the joy of proclaiming the Gospel—recognizing in it a theological-pastoral criterion that guides ecclesial choices as well as the content of every evangelizing action—means reconnecting the Church to the foundational experience of Easter.9

The Church as the “People of God” on the way to salvation

The evocative image of the Church as the “People of God,” taken from Scripture and renewed by Lumen Gentium, recurs frequently in the teaching of the post-conciliar popes. Francis, however, employs it in his own way. For him, “People of God” means recognizing in the encounter between the Gospel...