Rafael Domingo is Spruill Family Professor of Law and Religion at Emory University and Alvaro d’Ors Professor of Law at the University of Navarra

Pope Francis has just published a far-reaching encyclical that is destined, with time, to become his spiritual legacy to mankind in the realm of social issues. It is not surprising, therefore, that the pontiff wished to sign and present his document in Assisi, Italy, before the tomb of his beloved Saint Francis, from whom he took his name as pontiff seven years ago and from whom he now takes one of the saint’s own phrases as the title for his encyclical: Fratelli tutti (All Brothers).

In vivid terms, Francisco lays out an unvarnished snapshot of current world affairs with its myriad problems and challenges, from the lacerating COVID-19 pandemic to the multiple open wounds on society caused by misguided immigration policies, racism, unemployment, discrimination against women, human trafficking, abortion, populism, wars, rampant financial speculation, abuse of power, and the death penalty. Throughout his lengthy document, the pope dispenses advice ranging from the intensely personal—such as cautioning against “a frenzy of texting” in pursuit of instantaneous knowledge at the expense of real wisdom (para. 49)—to the grandly collective, such as calling for reforming the United Nations and for setting clear legal limits on financial and global institutions to “avoid power being co-opted only by a few countries” at the expense of weaker ones (para. 173).

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Montserrat Gas-Aixendri is Full Professor of Law and Religion at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain) 

The post-9/11 world was marked by an urgent need to theorize about the relationship between religion and violence, but at the same time, it sparked a growing interest in the role of religion in peacebuilding. Much of what has been written on this subject in recent yearsis based on Scott R. Appleby’s work The ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (2000). In this book, religion is understood as an internally plural and multifaceted phenomenon, which generates ambivalent responses, ranging from violence to militant pacifism.

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Patrick Hornbeck is Professor of Theology at Fordham University, where he is also a J.D. student in the School of Law

Pope Francis’s recent encyclical is the second of his major writings inspired directly by his papal namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. In Laudato Si’, published in 2015, Pope Francis lifted up the saint’s invocation of praise for God’s presence in creation, which the pontiff memorably dubbed “our common home.” Now, in Fratelli tutti, the pope’s focus shifts to the relationships among human persons—“all” the “brothers” whom St. Francis had inspired and invited into his life of radical poverty, simplicity, and friendship. (When the Vatican originally announced the encyclical, it was lost on few that neither the “Fratelli” of the document’s title nor the “fraternity” of its subtitle included women—an ongoing blind spot for many Catholic leaders. The pope does refer to “brothers and sisters” in the encyclical’s second sentence (para. 1).)

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