by Noel Colford

Pope Francis declared in his prayer intention for January, ‘We believers must return to our sources …. for us Christians the wellspring of human dignity and fraternity is the Gospel of Jesus.’ This is precisely what he himself has done in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti and he has succeeded in capturing the true spirit of the Gospel. Fratelli Tutti is built on the premise that ‘God created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and called them to live together as brothers and sisters, to fill the earth and make known the values of goodness, love and peace’.

Pope Francis says that faith has untold power to inspire and sustain our respect for others, for believers come to know that God loves every man and woman with infinite love and ‘thereby confers infinite dignity’ on all humanity. He expresses very beautifully what it means to love when he says that kindness is an attitude that is gentle, pleasant and supportive; it speaks words of comfort, strength, consolation and encouragement and it entails esteem and respect for others. He stresses that love values others, and so is open to dialogue and cooperation.