Did You Know?

Fratelli Tutti – Pope Francis’ new Encyclical – On Fraternity and Social Friendship
“Chapter 3 – Envisaging and Engendering an Open World
Liberty, equality and fraternity
103. Fraternity is born not only of a climate of respect for individual liberties, or even of a certain administratively guaranteed equality. Fraternity necessarily calls for something greater, which in turn enhances freedom and equality. What happens when fraternity is not consciously cultivated, when there is a lack of political will to promote it through education in fraternity, through dialogue and through the recognition of the values of reciprocity and mutual enrichment? Liberty becomes nothing more than a condition for living as we will, completely free to choose to whom or what we will belong, or simply to possess or exploit. This shallow understanding has little to do with the richness of a liberty directed above all to love.
104. Nor is equality achieved by an abstract proclamation that “all men and women are equal”. Instead, it is the result of the conscious and careful cultivation of fraternity. Those capable only of being “associates” create closed worlds. Within that framework, what place is there for those who are not part of one’s group of associates, yet long for a better life for themselves and their families?

105. Individualism does not make us more free, more equal, more fraternal. The mere sum of individual interests is not capable of generating a better world for the whole human family. Nor can it save us from the many ills that are now increasingly globalized. Radical individualism is a virus that is extremely difficult to eliminate, for it is clever. It makes us believe that everything consists in giving free rein to our own ambitions, as if by pursuing ever greater ambitions and creating safety nets we would somehow be serving the common good.” http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html   



Catholic WORD of the Week

“Wisdom – In its ordinary meanings, wisdom refers either to the perfection of knowledge or to the accumulated information in a certain field, in ancient sources or in human experience.  The term also has more than one theological meaning.  In the Scriptures, it refers to the personifications of God’s wise dealings and plan for the world and the human race, manifest in both creation and redemption.  The term also refers to one of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, along with understanding, piety, counsel, knowledge, fortitude and fear of the Lord.  The gifts are further perfections of the infused theological and moral virtues and cultivate in the soul the readiness to respond to the divine guidance that makes us able to participate fully in the divine life.  All the gifts pertain to particular areas of the Christian life.  Along with knowledge, wisdom is a gift perfecting the use of judgment.  Knowledge perfects the judgment of practical reason, while wisdom perfects the judgment of speculative reason.” Our Sunday Visitor’s CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, page 969