Thread by @CatholicDems

"The best way to dominate and gain control over people is to spread despair and discouragement, even under the guise of defending certain values."

Just digging into #FratelliTutti - but of course, this resonates.

vatican.va/content/france…

"The organization of societies worldwide is still far from reflecting clearly that women possess same dignity & identical rights as men. We say one thing with words, but our decisions & reality tell another story."

Glad to see but this is true of the Church, too. #FratelliTutti

These two sentences from #FratelliTutti: "War, terrorist attacks, racial or religious persecution, and many other affronts to human dignity are judged differently, depending on how convenient it proves for certain, primarily economic, interests..."

"...What is true as long as it is convenient for someone in power stops being true once it becomes inconvenient."
🔥🔥🔥
#FratelliTutti

"Paradoxically, we have certain ancestral fears that technological development has not succeeded in eliminating; indeed, those fears have been able to hide and spread behind new technologies." #FratelliTutti vatican.va/content/france…

Hm, this description of "mafias" in #FratelliTutti seems pointed:

"These flourish because they claim to be defenders of the forgotten, often by providing various forms of assistance even as they pursue their criminal interests."

A cri di coeur from @Pontifex: "In today’s world, the sense of belonging to a single human family is fading, and the dream of working together for justice and peace seems an outdated utopia..." #FratelliTutti

"...What reigns instead is a cool, comfortable and globalized indifference, born of deep disillusionment concealed behind a deceptive illusion: thinking that we are all-powerful, while failing to realize that we are all in the same boat." #FratelliTutti

Re the #COVID19 pandemic, @Pontifex says, "If everything is connected, it is hard to imagine that this global disaster is unrelated to our way of approaching reality, our claim to be absolute masters of our own lives and of all that exists." #FratelliTutti

.@Pontifex doesn't let us off the hook: "I do not want to speak of divine retribution, nor would it be sufficient to say that the harm we do to nature is itself the punishment for our offences. The world is itself crying out in rebellion." #FratelliTutti

"Once this health crisis passes, our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation. God willing, after all this, we will think no longer in terms of 'them' and 'those', but only 'us'." 🙏 #FratelliTutti

.@Pontifex does not ignore the systemic nature of this pandemic: "If only we might keep in mind all those elderly persons who died for lack of respirators, partly as a result of the dismantling, year after year, of healthcare systems." #FratelliTutti

The main thesis: "Unless we recover the shared passion to create a community of belonging and solidarity worthy of our time, our energy and our resources, the global illusion that misled us will collapse and leave many in the grip of anguish and emptiness." #FratelliTutti

They won't say this but this is obviously directed at the U.S.: "Certain populist political regimes, as well as certain liberal economic approaches, maintain that an influx of migrants is to be prevented at all costs." #FratelliTutti

"Arguments are also made for the propriety of limiting aid to poor countries, so that they can hit rock bottom and find themselves forced to take austerity measures..." #FratelliTutti

"...One fails to realize that behind such statements, abstract and hard to support, great numbers of lives are at stake."

Yell it from the rooftops, @Pontifex! #FratelliTutti

vatican.va/content/france…

This paragraph: "Migrants are not seen as entitled like others to participate in the life of society, and it is forgotten that they possess the same intrinsic dignity as any person. Hence they ought to be 'agents in their own redemption'." #FratelliTutti

"No one will ever openly deny that they are human beings, yet in practice, by our decisions and the way we treat them, we can show that we consider them less worthy, less important, less human." #FratelliTutti

"For Christians, this way of thinking and acting is unacceptable, since it sets certain political preferences above deep convictions of our faith: the inalienable dignity of each human person regardless of origin, race or religion, & supreme law of fraternal love." #FratelliTutti

That last sentence? All of the Catholics and Christians who have supported this administration's shameful immigration policies should memorize it. #FratelliTutti

.@PopeFrancis is not a fan of oversharing: "Digital communication wants to bring everything out into the open; people’s lives are combed over, laid bare and bandied about, often anonymously." #FratelliTutti

.@PopeFrancis, also no fan of cancel culture: "Digital campaigns of hatred & destruction, for their part, are not – as some would have us believe – a positive form of mutual support, but simply an association of individuals united against a perceived common enemy." #FratelliTutti

.@Pontifex warns against digital relationships that don't allow for growth of real sociability: "Yet they do not really build community; instead, they tend to disguise and expand the very individualism that finds expression in xenophobia and in contempt for the vulnerable."

.@Pontifex on racism: "Every brother or sister in need, when abandoned or ignored by the society in which I live, becomes an existential foreigner, even though born in the same country..." #FratelliTutti

"...They may be citizens with full rights, yet they are treated like foreigners in their own country. Racism is a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting." #FratelliTutti