Last Saturday, we celebrated the eighth anniversary of Pope Francis' pontificate. On this occasion, the Faculty of Theology and Religious Sciences of the Catholic Institute of Paris is offering a video conference accessible to all, tomorrow, Tuesday at 6 a.m., to help understand the changes in the place of the Church in the world, a world that is changing so dramatically that we speak of a change of world, as Pope Francis himself refers to it.
What makes Pope Francis' message so universal and popular?
It is in particular that he is a witness to this change. He risks his word and commits himself on the ground, a word and a commitment in unity, an inspired and inspiring commitment, driven by faith and love.
We saw him during his last trip to Iraq, from March 5 to 8.
It was an exceptional visit to sow in this land that has been martyred for so many years, "three seeds capable of propelling Iraq towards its future: respect, unity and hope" (Mgr Gollnisch). Bruised and humiliated for forty years, the Iraqis were able to hear the voice of the Pope telling them: "You deserve to be respected". He also defended unity in a country eaten away by divisions. He himself made a very significant gesture through the meeting he had with Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, one of the great figures of Muslim Shiism: "He was so respectful during our meeting, I felt honored", said the Pope, praising " a wise and prudent person [... ]" before launching, like a cry from the heart, "This meeting did my soul good" (La Croix, March 9, 2021).
This meeting is reminiscent of that of February 4, 2019 with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. The meeting with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar marked her, it is prophetic. It comes back as a leitmotif throughout Fratelli Tutti ( §5, §29, §136, § 192, § 285 ). The Pope writes: " Religious plurality is a call, in multiplicity and difference, to "enter together, as a single family, into an ark that can sail the stormy seas of the world: the ark of fraternity " " in order to contribute to creating new generations that bring goodness and peace and defend everywhere the rights of the oppressed and the least." This message in word and deed carries a crazy hope. In Fratelli Tutti, whose title takes up the very words of Saint Francis of Assisi, the meeting with Imam Al-Tayeb punctuates the hope of fraternity carried by the encyclical All Brothers, echoing "Everything is linked ", already underlined in Laudato Si' on integral ecology (2015) "act 1 of a call for a new civilization " Edgar Morin had written at the time.
These are some of the major themes that will be developed more broadly tomorrow evening, according to ten prospective views on eight years of pontificate.
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