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Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis gives us Fratelli Tutti, a proposal for a way of life marked by the flavor of the Gospel. It is a call to love others as sisters and brothers, even when they are far from us; it is a call to open fraternity, to recognizing and loving every person with a love without borders; it is a call to encounter others in a way that is capable of overcoming all distance and every temptation to engage in disputes, impositions, or submissions. Fratelli Tutti does not claim too offer a complete teaching on fraternal love, but seeks rather to consider its universal scope.
COVID-19 forced the Pope to interrupt this writing of his third encyclical. This pandemic has exposed our false securities, our fragmentation, and our inability to work together. In the face of present day attempts to eliminate or to ignore others, Fratelli Tutti is an invitation to respond to God’s call with a new vision of fraternity and social friendship. The Holy Father hopes that, in these times, we can contribute to the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity by acknowledging the dignity of each and every human person. -