No Pope has paid so much attention to happiness before Francis. After all, the recent pandemic years have caused many people to forget what it means to be happy. Confined to their homes, some decided that satisfying only the most basic needs is more important.

Yet, Catholic social teaching is not just a way to „be happy”. It is first and foremost a signpost of the way to salvation and a crucial resource for Europe, and the world. John Paul II realized this, producing some of the most powerful social teaching of the 20th century and raising it to the level of moral theology, making it an integral part of the proclamation of the Christian faith in the world. Francis has carried forward his predecessor’s vision, taking us to the social and environmental peripheries of our world and showing, that Christ will meet us anew there.

This new dynamic is possibly the first, though probably not the most important, evolution of the CST in the Francis papacy: the Church’s social teaching has gone beyond the library bookshelves and started circulating among people. The proposal that the Church brings to the world in its social teaching has entered into dialogue with the world, tying the debate between different, often distant, places and points of view.

Solidarity 

The concept of solidarity stands in the center of the social teaching of the last three popes. It could hardly be otherwise, since one of the most important moments in the forging of Catholic social teaching in the previous century was captured with the changes of 1981-1991 and the Polish „Solidarity” movement. Under the Francis papacy, however, the evangelical notion of solidarity is being extended to more areas than just the economy or work.

This stretching of the concept of solidarity can be traced back to John Paul II’s message on World Peace Day in 1990. Peace with God the Creator, peace with all creation. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the current Pope has made a major evolution in CST on this point. Although the 1990 document already emphasized that the environment is of increasing concern to various, often grassroots and spontaneously organized Catholic groups and leaders of the Church at all levels, Francis has devoted the greatest space in his social teaching to covering environmental issues. This change can be summed up by recalling the papal words of March 2021, when the Pope spoke in an empty St Peter’s Square, saying that „we cannot be healthy in a sick world”.

Dialogue

Even if it was Benedict XVI, in his message for the 2008 World Day of Peace, who introduced the concept of the ‘covenant between human beings and the environment’ into the discussion, Francis has made it one of the highlights of his teaching, expressed in his first encyclical, Laudato si’. While in Benedict’s Caritas in veritate, he elaborates on this theme, describing the threefold responsibility that is part of man’s relationship with the environment and pointing to „responsibility for the poor, for future generations and for all humanity”, Francis goes further, saying that this is a part of our „vocation” as human beings, and therefore appropriate human development projects, echoing the previous pontiff, that we „cannot ignore future generations, but must be characterized by solidarity and intergenerational justice”.

The formulation of environmental issues in terms of the covenant — including between generations — has to be acknowledged as a huge step in the transition from a ‘governance model’ to a more updated approach. The new vision of „ecological solidarity”, in a world of multiple crises, when most of the Earth’s seven basic ecosystems are under threat, is one of the most important evolutions, brought about by Francis.

Power 

Globalization is yet another issue, that has come to the fore in Church discussions of social teaching in the last decades. Although, it has received some attention in John Paul II’s Centesimus annus, in regional synods of bishops, and elsewhere, and even if the far-reaching impact of this phenomenon was a major concern of Benedict’s in Caritas in Veritate Francis takes this thinking further with in-depth analysis and clear reflection in the Christus Vivit encyclical and during the Synod of Synodality — his flagship project.

The post-pandemic world raises many new questions. One of them is of the power and the abuse of such, as well as the question of the role of corporations, bigger, and more powerful than many states, and the inquiry of understanding freedom in a world of galloping technological progress. Addressing these questions the Pope turned to during his trip to Congo saying „Hands off Africa!”.

The Church has experience in all these matters. For many millennia it has been the most global structure, reaching out to the world with its experience of connection and mercy. Maybe that’s why the pope smiles so often, showing that a different approach is possible.

Michał Kłosowski

publicist, deputy editor-in-chief of the Polish monthly „Wszystko Co Najważniejsze”, U.S. State Department and Rome’s Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) alumni, author of the book „Pope Francis decade” (2023).

L'articolo <strong>How Pope Francis transformed Catholic Social Teaching and brought it out into the light</strong> proviene da InsideOver.

Russia’s domestic and foreign policy is not fully understood without taking into account the centuries-long powerful influence it has exerted on pop culture, politics and clergy, by the idea of the “Third Rome”. Such a concept was developed in the aftermath of the Byzantine empire’s fall and, shortly, states that Russia is the spiritual heiress of Rome and Constantinople and, accordingly, the true defender of Christendom.

Although Russia indeed recognizes and promotes its cultural and religious pluralism since the tsarist times, it is equally undeniable the importance played by the Orthodox faith throughout the centuries in the creation and definition of the Russian identity and the shaping of the foreign policy, as shown by the “Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationality” 19th century doctrine or by the will to defend pilgrims and Christian worshippers living in the Ottoman-ruled Holy Land.

After a 80-year oblivion caused by the atheistic goals of the Soviet Union, the Third Rome has been brought to new life during the Putin era and is helping the country gain increasing credibility and support worldwide, from the Middle East’s persecuted Christians to the Vatican, from European far-right populists to American Christian fundamentalists.

The Vatican-Moscow axis

As part of its pro-Christian global agenda, in recent years, Russia has been showing a growing interest in the improvement of bilateral ties with the Vatican. The approachment started just before the death of John Paul II and recorded an impressive intensification during the Pope Francis era, whose Third World-focused and China-friendly agenda fits perfectly with Russia’s long-term ambition to accelerate the transition to multipolarism.

The most important event was the 2016 joint declaration signed in L’Avana by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill. The 30-point document was intended to be the first step towards the reconciliation and identified common culture wars to fight together, such as the culture of death, the defence of natural family, and the capitalism-driven de-humanization of people, and common goals in the international arena, such as the protection of persecuted Christians.

In the aftermath of the L’Avana declaration, Vatican – and Moscow Patriarchate – backed organizations raised a degree of cooperation on humanitarian assistance in war-torn Syria and Iraq to unprecedented levels and extended the range action to the rebuilding of damaged churches and historic landmarks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis seem tied by a very good relationship as they met three times since 2013 and share publicly a common position on the world-most important issues, from Ukraine to Venezuela and Syria. Last July, Putin’s trip to Italy was the occasion to pay a visit to the Vatican, where he signed a memorandum of understanding on health cooperation and re-confirmed Russia’s front-line engagement in the protection of persecuted Christians and defense of “traditional values“.

But the Middle Eastern and North African region is not the only front in which Russia and the Vatican are working together. Pope Francis made clear that his goal is to de-westernize the Catholic church and give voice to the outskirts of the world. Accordingly, the pontiff strengthened the ties with Russian-friendly rising powers currently involved in open confrontations against the West, namely Iran and China.

In the first case, he lobbied at international level for the nuclear deal, while in the second case he is trying to normalize the status of the Chinese Catholic Church, to take advantage of the ongoing Christian-oriented demographic revolution and lobbied the Italian government to join the New Silk Road.

Moscow in the Middle East

From the very beginning of the Syrian civil war and the expansion of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), the Kremlin was helped in gathering information by the Patriarchate of Antioch, whose local prelates acted as informants for the Patriarchate of Moscow following the rising terrorist threats and writing their reports. The latter worked jointly with the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society to help the Christians face food scarcity and basic needs and in the year 2013 alone, they sent 70 tons of aid and $1.3 million.

When in 2015 the ally Bashar al-Assad was on the verge of overthrow due to the rising pressure coming from Al Qaeda-linked opposition rebels and the IS, Russia opted for a military intervention to restore order and peace in the unrest-plagued country and to prevent terrorists from extending further.

The protection of a long-tormented Christian community from an extinction scenario played an important role in convincing Moscow to intervene, according to Putin itself, and was warmly welcomed by Catholics, American Protestants and Orthodox Arabs, contributing to significantly improve the image of Russia among them and, in particular, in the Middle East.

Hungary joins the holy axis

From now on, Russia is going to be supported in the protection of Arab Christians by a former great power which was historically engaged in the defense of Christianity: Hungary. On 30 October, Putin landed Budapest for an official meeting with the Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Many topics were matter of talks, from economy to energy, but a reserved place was given to the plight of Christians in the Muslim world.

According to Hungary’s state secretary for the aid of persecuted Christians, Tristan Azbej, the two leaders discussed the foundation of an international alliance between nations interested in fighting Christianophobia and ending the worldwide persecution, which is about to reach “genocide levels” in several parts of the planet and makes Christianity the world-most persecuted religion.

The Hungarian government presented the proposal to Putin, who showed much interest in it, and is set to unveil it on the world stage very soon. Eventually, the leaders agreed on the need to extend the bilateral cooperation to the help of Christians in North Africa and the Middle East with the double-aimed goal of protecting them and avoiding their mass exodus to Europe.

L'articolo Russia’s Return As Defender of Christianity proviene da InsideOver.