Pope Francis equivocal fraternity meeting pleases UN not faithful
The World Meeting on Fraternity motivated by Pope Francis, today June 10 in St Peter's Square, is being held with the participation of the rescue ship 'Mare Jonio' of Mediterranea, an NGO headed by Luca Casarini, who was linked to a far-left organisation. Obviously it is the clearest sign of an ideological misunderstanding, but it has the support of the UN.
Today, Saturday June 10, the World Meeting on Human Fraternity - #NotAlone will be held, organised by the Vatican Foundation that bears the name of Pope Francis' encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" together with other Vatican dicasteries. The event was presented at a press conference on June 5 by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, president of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, and TV host Carlo Conti, who will present the event. The appreciation of the UN was predictable and, in fact, Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees, sent a message to express his appreciation.
The meeting, which Francis wanted confirmed despite his recent hospitalisation, to be held in St. Peter's Square starting at 4 p.m., will be connected worldwide with eight squares. These will include the ship ‘Mare Jonio’ of Mediterranea, the NGO headed by Luca Casarini, the former leader of a far-left organisation, to whom Francis had written a letter of commendation in 2020 saying "always count on me". Mediterranea's website also bears the slogan “No one is saved alone”, which reappears - #NotAlone - in the world meetings on fraternity organised by the Vatican and which is also intended to summarise the meaning of 'Fratelli Tutti' that Pope Francis expresses with his recurring phrase “we are all in the same boat”.
Thus set up, the initiative seems to say that the message of Fratelli Tutti does not have its own criterion of brotherhood to put forward, so much so that it can comfortably coexist with many realities that deal with human rights, including realities that are ideologically and politically distant or opposed to the Social Doctrine of the Church. But, if this includes the rescue ship Mare Jonio, therefore, and, why not, we ask ourselves, Carola Rakete's 'Sea Watch 3’?
The only condition of compliance with Fratelli Tutti is to be in the same boat, i.e. being men. But the coastguard sailors and, on the opposite side, the people smugglers are also men and are in the same boat of humanity. Why was Saturday's event not held on a coastguard ship? So Fratelli Tutti’s perspective of not starting from a criterion of solidarity but from simply belonging to the human race - that is, being in the same boat - is not consistently maintained, because it cannot be.
Even the World Meeting on Human Fraternity makes choices ... and chooses the anarchist Casarini and not the coastguard sailors, yet both save human lives. It is here that the appeal of simply being in the same boat turns out to be ideological, just as the event in St Peter's Square appears ideological and non-evangelical. Because one can be in the same boat in many ways, and the mere fact of being next to each other does not mean that we are automatically brothers. Above all, there can be many opinions on where the boat in which we are all sitting next to each other should go and whether there will be a true final landing or whether we will continue to wander on the waters until we sink.
Event setups of this kind now continuously demonstrate that the Church is positioning itself in a different and opposite way to the traditional one. It is a behaviour that has sedimented and grown over time and that has now materialised systematically and is being implemented without thought. The Church no longer announces to those in the same boat a criterion from outside and above the boat. She summons all those in the boat, places herself in the boat as a sailor among others, and believes that the criteria of true fraternity and solidarity emerge from everyone’s discussion.
In the past, Francis had summoned the popular movements, but without a specific criterion. Today Francis summons those who save people, but without a proper announcement of what it means to save people and, above all, what salvation means. Tomorrow he may convene families, but without proposing an evangelical vision of the family and, therefore, also the LGBT 'new families'. Because there is room for everyone in the Church. But if there is room for everyone it means that one enters the Church without a criterion and that it is enough to be in the same boat to be part of it without needing any pass. But then there is no longer any difference between the Church and the boat in which we all live. The Church coincides with the world and no longer has a single word of its own to say to it. The Church thinks she is summonsing the world, but it is the world that summons the Church. This will also be the case on Saturday 10 June in St. Peter's Square. But no worries: it has received the UN's appreciation.
