HUMANISM, A THEME STILL NECESSARY

TOWARD HUMANISM AND UNIVERSAL FRATERNITY IN THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

Abstract

This article takes the theme of humanism as a central issue in the thinking that Francis has been formulating in his magisterium, of which pontificate began in 2013, in the context of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. John W. O’Malley says that “nobody expected that the new pope would ignite an almost manic enthusiasm and that he would do so not only among Catholics but also among people of other religious traditions and, even more surprising, among people of no religious belief at all. Suddenly, a long era seemed to be over and a new one seemed to have begun.”2. In Francis’ humanism nature, culture, history and mystery are not separated. Therefore, it can be said that it contains a cosmology articulated with a philosophy and theology of culture and history whose completion is at the apex of a mystique. Thus, three directions take this article as investigative questions. First: how is the humanism formulated by Francis presented in the context of humanisms? Second: is the humanism formulated by Francis and which is part of the Social Doctrine of the Church feasible for the construction of a universal fraternity? Third: What theoretical and practical conditions can be found in Francis’s formulation for the achievement and realization of the project of a universal fraternity? These questions seek and indicate in the entirety of Laudato Si’ a proposition of an architectural knowledge, a unique novelty in the history of encyclicals since Leo XIII in the 19th century. The hypothesis that runs through this reflection is that Francis formulates a liberating humanism, therefore, there is a turn within the very Social Doctrine of the Church, making its Eurocentric reading until the pontificate of Benedict XVI take place, from now on, in perspective from the peripheries of the globalized world, that is, from Caribbean Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, subsuming the preferential and solidary option for the poorest.