Social Friendship and Political Love in Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti

Abstract

In 2020, Pope Francis launched the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti: on fraternity and social friendship, criticizing the global neoliberal socioeconomic model and consequent processes of social exclusion and impoverishment to which large portions of the world’s population are subject. It points to the growth of individualism, selfishness, social efficiency, and the isolation of rich countries as factors that govern these processes today. From the concepts of social friendship and political love anchored in Christian ethics, as presented by the Supreme Pontiff in that encyclical, this text reflects on the possibility of rescuing appreciation of the dignity of life and politics in contemporary times.