Natural Evil, Suffering, a New Encyclical and a New World Order. A Socio-Religious Perspective on the Spirit of "Fratelli Tutti" (PDF)

Scientific Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics - Theology, Religion Pedagogy, grade: 1.0, Kwame Nkrumah University, language: English, abstract: This elaboration draws out what the author refers to as the "Spirit of Fratelli Tutti" from the recent encyclical by Pope Francis entitled Fratelli Tutti. He provides a socio-religious or theological perspective on the new encyclical. Based on three social virtues, fraternity, solidarity and social friendship, the encyclical is a call to humanity to unite and to build a brave new world order after the Covid-19 pandemic.

He has limited himself to examining why the encyclical has been well-received, how Covid-19 calls us to a new way of being human in which humanity is being challenged not to return to business as usual in the way we deal with each other; how natural evil, such as a pandemic, cannot thwart the plan of the creator; how the new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti factors into a new World Order and ending with five lessons he was able to cull from Fratelli Tutti.

Written, as the Pope says, when "the Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly erupted, exposing our false securities" (Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti 2020: par 7), he uses that as a jumping off point to challenge the age-old theologoumenon of the impassibility of God. He argues that God in fact suffers as he has been suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic, but he is not overwhelmed by suffering. Fratelli Tutti calls for a new way of relating to each other as our brothers' and sisters' keepers, as we head towards Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.