Pope Francis and Economic Justice
Archbishop Charles Chaput
I'm a Capuchin Franciscan, and I've often found that people think of Francis of Assisi as a kind of 13th-century flower child. St. Francis was certainly "countercultural," but only in his radical obedience to the Church and his radical insistence on living the Gospel fully - including poverty and all of its other uncomfortable demands. Jesus, speaking to him from the cross of San Damiano, said, "Repair my house." I think Pope Francis believes God has called him to do that as pope, as God calls every pope. And he plans to do it in the way St. Francis did it.
But Francis stresses more directly than they did that human solidarity is a necessary dimension of human dignity. We need both. Human dignity requires not just the protection of individuals, as in our pro-life work, but an ongoing commitment to the common good.
Solidarity, he says in Evangelii Gaudium, is a relationship of love and reconciliation. It's a mutual concern for the other's good (29). He finds this modeled for us in the Mass and in Mary's great Yes to God. Defined economically, it puts "the community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by the few." To put it negatively, "what satisfies one at the expense of the other ends up destroying both" (Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words, edited by Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin). We need to live in solidarity with one another because we can't change our social structures if we don't. Without learning solidarity, any new political or economic structure will become as corrupt as the old (Evangelii Gaudium, 188-189).
Archbishop Charles Chaput
I'm a Capuchin Franciscan, and I've often found that people think of Francis of Assisi as a kind of 13th-century flower child. St. Francis was certainly "countercultural," but only in his radical obedience to the Church and his radical insistence on living the Gospel fully - including poverty and all of its other uncomfortable demands. Jesus, speaking to him from the cross of San Damiano, said, "Repair my house." I think Pope Francis believes God has called him to do that as pope, as God calls every pope. And he plans to do it in the way St. Francis did it.
But Francis stresses more directly than they did that human solidarity is a necessary dimension of human dignity. We need both. Human dignity requires not just the protection of individuals, as in our pro-life work, but an ongoing commitment to the common good.
Solidarity, he says in Evangelii Gaudium, is a relationship of love and reconciliation. It's a mutual concern for the other's good (29). He finds this modeled for us in the Mass and in Mary's great Yes to God. Defined economically, it puts "the community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by the few." To put it negatively, "what satisfies one at the expense of the other ends up destroying both" (Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words, edited by Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin). We need to live in solidarity with one another because we can't change our social structures if we don't. Without learning solidarity, any new political or economic structure will become as corrupt as the old (Evangelii Gaudium, 188-189).
