0
0
Pope Francis’ address to the “World Meeting on Human Fraternity” event
Clementine Hall – Saturday, 11 May 2024
Dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for coming from many parts of the world, for the World Meeting on Human Fraternity.
I am grateful to the Fratelli tutti Foundation, which has proposed to promote the principles set out in the Encyclical, “in order to encourage initiatives linked to spirituality, art, education and dialogue with the world, around Saint Peter’s Basilica and in the embrace of its colonnade” (Chirograph, i8 December 2021).
On a planet in flames, you have gathered with the intention of reaffirming your “no” to war and “yes” to peace, bearing witness to the humanity that unites us and makes us recognize each other as brothers and sisters, in the mutual gift of the respective cultural differences.
In this regard, I am reminded of the words of a famous speech by Martin Luther King, when he said: “We’ve learned to fly the air like birds, we have learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we have not learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters” (Martin Luther King, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech 11 December 1964). This is indeed the case. And so, let us ask ourselves: how can we, concretely, return to the art of living together as truly human beings?
I would like to return to the key attitude proposed in Fratelli tutti: Compassion.
In the Gospel of Luke (10:25-37), Jesus tells of a Samaritan who, moved by compassion, approaches a Jew who has been left half-dead the side of the road. Let us look at these two men.
Their cultures were enemies, their histories were different and full of conflict, but the one became the other’s brother in the moment when he allowed himself to be led by the compassion he felt for him – we could say that he allowed himself to be drawn by Jesus present in this wounded man.
As a poet has Saint Francis of Assisi say in one of his works: ‘The Lord is where your brothers are’ (É. Leclerc, The Wisdom of a Poor Man).
In the afternoon you will meet at twelve points in Vatican City and Rome, to express your intention to generate a movement of outgoing fraternity.
In this context, the working “tables”, which have been prepared over recent months, will present some proposals to civil society, centered on the dignity of the human person, in order to construct good policies based on the principle of fraternity, which “enhances freedom and equality” (Fratelli tutti, 103).
I appreciated this decision, and I encourage you to continue your work of silent sowing.
This can lead to a “Charter of the Human Being” which will include not only rights, but also behavior and practical reasons for what makes us more human in our lives.
And I invite you not to be discouraged, because “persistent and courageous dialogue does not make headlines, but quietly helps the world to live much better than we imagine” (ivi., 198).
In particular, I would like to thank the group of distinguished Nobel Laureates present, both the for the Declaration on Human Fraternity, that you drafted on 10 June last year, and for the commitment you have made this year to reconstruct a “grammar of humanity”, a “grammar of the human”, on which to base choices and behavior. I urge you to go forward, to make this spirituality of brotherhood grow, and to promote, through your diplomatic action, the role of multilateral bodies.
Dear brothers and sisters, war is an illusion. War is always a defeat, as is the idea of international security based on the deterrence of fear. It is another deception. To guarantee lasting peace, we must return to the recognition of our common humanity and place brotherhood at the center of peoples’ lives. Only in this way will we be able to develop a model of coexistence capable of giving the human family a future. Political peace requires peace of heart, so that people can meet in the certainty that life always triumphs over all forms of death.
Dear friends, as I greet you, I think of the embrace that this evening, like last year, will be achieved by so many young people. Let us look at them, let us learn from them, as the Gospel teaches us: “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).
Let us all make this embrace a commitment of life and a prophetic gesture of charity.
Thank you for what you are doing. ! I am close to you and I ask you to pray for me.
And now, all together, in silence, let us ask for and receive God’s blessing.
