The cardinal says the Pope's new encyclical is a warning: the world is 'on the brink'

One of Pope Francis' top advisers said the pontiff sees the current world situation comparable to that of the Cuban missile crisis, World War II or September 11 - and that to fully understand the papal encyclical released on Sunday, it is need to recognize “we are on the brink. "

"Depending on your age, what was it like hearing Pius XII deliver his Christmas messages during the Second World War?" Cardinal Michael Czerny said Monday. “Or how did you feel when Pope John XXIII published Pacem in terris? Or after the 2007/2008 crisis or after 11 September? I think you need to recover that feeling in your stomach, in your whole being, to appreciate Brothers All “.

"I think Pope Francis feels today that the world needs a message comparable to the one we needed during the Cuban missile crisis, or the Second World War or September 11 or the great collapse of 2007/2008," he said. said. “We are on the brink of the abyss. We have to withdraw in a very human, global and local way. I think it's a way to get into Fratelli Tutti “.

Fratelli Tutti is the encyclical that the Argentine pope issued on the occasion of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, after having signed it the day before in the Italian town where the Franciscan saint lived most of his life.

According to the cardinal, if Pope Francis 'previous encyclical, Laudato Si', on care for creation, “taught us that everything is connected, Brothers all teaches us that everyone is connected”.

“If we take responsibility for our common home and our brothers and sisters, then I think we have a good chance and my hope is rekindled and inspires us to continue and do more,” he said.

Czerny, head of the Vatican's Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, made his comments during a “Dahlgren Dialogue” session organized online by Georgetown University's Catholic Social Thought and Public Life Initiative.

The prelate said that Fratelli Tutti "brings some big questions and takes them home to each of us", with the pontiff attacking a theory that most subscribe to without realizing it: "We believe we have made it ourselves, without recognizing God as our creator; we are rich, we believe we deserve everything we have and consume; and we are orphans, disconnected, totally free and actually alone. "

Although Francis doesn't actually use the image he has developed, Czerny said it helps him understand what the encyclical is pushing, and then focuses on what the encyclical is leading readers to: “The truth, and this it is the opposite of being themselves prosperous orphans. "

The Canadian cardinal of Czechoslovakian origin was accompanied by Sister Nancy Schreck, former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious; Edith Avila Olea, an immigrant advocate in Chicago and a board member of Bread for the World; and Claire Giangravé, Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service (and former Crux cultural correspondent).

"Many people today have lost hope and fear because there is so much collapse and the dominant culture tells us to work harder, work harder, do more or less the same," Schreck said. "What is so delightful to me in this letter is that Pope Francis provides us with an alternative way to examine what is happening in our life and that something new may emerge at this time."

The religious also said that Fratelli Tutti is an invitation to see oneself as a "neighbor, as a friend, to build relationships", particularly necessary at a time when the world feels so politically divided, as it helps to heal the division.

As a Franciscan, she gave the example of St. Francis visiting the Muslim sultan al-Malik al-Kamil during the crusades, when the "dominant thought was to kill the other".

To put it in a "very short" version, he said that the order that the saint gave to those who accompanied him was not to speak but to listen. After their meeting, "they left with a relationship between them", and the saint returned to Assisi and incorporated some small elements of Islam into his life and that of the Franciscan family, such as the call to prayer.

"The key is that we could go to the person we perceive as an enemy or that our culture calls our enemy, and we may be able to build a relationship, and we see that in every element of Brothers All," Schreck said.

He also said that the “genius” part of Fratelli Tutti in terms of economy is “who is my neighbor and how I treat who is pushed aside by a system that generates poor people”.

"In many parts of the world, our current financial model benefits the few and the exclusion or destruction of the many," Schreck said. “I think we need to continue building relationships between those who have resources and those who don't. Relationships guide our thinking: we can have abstract economic theories, but they start to take hold when we see the impact they have on people ”.

Czerny said it is not the task of Church leaders, not even the pope, "to tell us how to manage our economy or our politics." However, the pope can lead the world towards certain values, and this is what the pope does in his latest encyclical, remembering that the economy cannot be the driver of politics.

Avila shared her vision as a “DREAMER”, who moved with her family to the United States when she was 8 months old.

“As an immigrant, I am in a unique place, because I cannot avoid difficulties,” she said. “I live with the uncertainty, with the constant anti-immigrant rhetoric we hear on the media and on social media, I live with the nightmares I receive from the constant threat. I can't synchronize the clock. "

Yet, for her, Brothers All, it was "an invitation to rest, an invitation to continue with hope, to remember that the cross is extremely hard, but that there is a Resurrection".

Avila said that as a Catholic, she saw Francis' encyclical as an invitation to contribute to society and make it better.

She also felt that Pope Francis was speaking to her as an immigrant: “Growing up in a family of mixed status, you are given challenges that are not easy to navigate or understand. I was moved because I felt very listened to, because even though our church is here and far from the Vatican, I have felt that my pain and our suffering as a community of immigrants in the United States are not in vain and are being listened to ”.

Giangravé said that as a journalist you can become "a little cynical, you learn more and that can make you lose hope for some of the ambitious dreams you had as a child - when I was in university - about what kind of world Catholics, but all , of any religion, could build together. I remember conversations in cafes with people my age talking about borders and property and the rights of every single human being, and how religions could come together and how we could really have a dialogue and a policy that reflected the interests of the most vulnerable. , Poors . "

For her it was "fun" to hear something that Pope Francis often said, but had never experienced: "The old dream, the young do."

“The older people I know weren't really dreaming that much, they seem very busy remembering or thinking about a time that is gone,” said Giangravé. "But Pope Francis dreamed in this encyclical, and as a young man, and many other young people, he made me feel inspired, and perhaps naive, but enthusiastic that things don't have to be like that in the world."