In fact, it was a total failure. Four slots had been prepared, one of which remained entirely empty and the others were only filled to a third. For the occasion, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, president of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation, had transformed the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica into a refreshment center, with ecological benches, made of wooden pallets.
The day ended with the reading of a declaration, signed by the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, on behalf of Pope Francis, who was detained in hospital following his abdominal operation. Also titled Not Alone, this text was read by the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus. We were thus able to hear some humanitarian clichés, supported by numerous quotations from the Pope:
“We are different, we have different cultures and religions, but we are brothers and we want to live in peace (Francis). Every man is my brother, every woman is my sister, always. We want to live together, like brothers and sisters, in the garden that is the Earth. The garden of fraternity is the condition of life for all.”
“Together, we choose to live our relations on the basis of fraternity, which is nourished by dialogue and ‘forgiving does not mean forgetting’ (Fratelli tutti, n° 250), but the renunciation of ‘not yielding to the same destructive force’ (FT, n° 251) whose consequences we all suffer. United with Pope Francis, we want to reaffirm that “authentic reconciliation does not flee from conflict, but is achieved in conflict, resolving it through dialogue and open, honest and patient negotiation” (FT, n. 244).”
“This in the context of the architecture of rights of man [of which one wonders who is the Grand Architect. Ed.]. We want to shout it to the world in the name of fraternity: no more war! It is peace, justice, equality that will guide the destiny of all humanity. No to fear, to sexual and domestic violence! Let armed conflicts cease. Enough with nuclear weapons and landmines.”
“We encourage countries to promote joint efforts to create societies of peace, such as the establishment of a Ministry of Peace. We pledge to reclaim the earth stained with the blood of violence and hatred, social inequality, and corruption of the heart. To hate we respond with love.”
“We also believe in a social fraternity that recognizes the equal dignity of all, nurtures friendship and belonging, promotes education, equal opportunities, decent working conditions and social justice, welcoming , solidarity and cooperation; we believe in the social and solidarity economy and in the just ecological transition, in sustainable agriculture guaranteeing access to food for all, to promote harmonious relations based on mutual respect and attention to the well-being of all.”
There is no concern in this declaration, worthy of those heard at the United Nations podium, for either faith or for the necessary conversion to Jesus Christ. Even before this calamitous meeting in substance – and seedy in form – Stefano Fontana provided in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana of June 9 these very relevant reflections:
“The meeting, to be held in St. Peter’s Square starting at 4 p.m. and will be connected worldwide with eight sites. These will include the ship ‘Mare Ionio’ of Mediterranea, the NGO led by Luca Casarini, the former leader of a far-left organization [Centri Socialià], 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 organized by the Vatican and which is also intended to summarize 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.”
“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 Coast Guard vessel?”
“So Fratelli tutti’s perspective of not starting from a criterion of solidarity but simply belonging to the human race – that is, being in the same boat – is not consistently maintained, because it cannot be.”
“The World Meeting on Human Fraternity makes choices… and chooses the anarchist Casarini and not the coastguard sailors, yet both save 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.”
And the Italian academic concludes logically: “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.”
“Today Francis summons those who save people, but without a properly 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 it. The Church thinks she is summoning the world, but it is the world that summons the Church.”
Here it is no longer a question of a more or less partial alignment of the Church with the world, but of an absorption, of a total worldliness.
On June 10, 2023, an international meeting on human fraternity was held in Rome, in the spirit of Fratelli tutti (2020) and the Interreligious Declaration of Abu Dhabi (2019), signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. Despite the theme of this meeting, which proudly proclaimed, Not Alone, the participants found themselves quite isolated in St. Peter’s Square.