Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future

Francis (The Name of God is Mercy) offers pastoral encouragement in this clarion call to create a more just and sustainable world. “We cannot return to the false securities of the political and economic systems we had before the [Covid-19] crisis,” Francis writes. Using a three-part framework (to see, to choose, to act), the pope first names behaviors making humanity and the planet sick: “the destruction of the environment with our self-forgetting, our rejection of who we are as creatures of a loving Creator.” He then expounds on values the faithful should use to guide their choices, including consideration of the impact on the poor of any action. Francis takes aim at demagogic populism as well as unfettered economic markets, and defends his 2015 Synod on the Family about pastoral guidelines on traditional roles of and within families, and answers criticisms from conservative Catholics who believe he is too liberal and from progressives who think he is too traditional: “The danger of becoming trapped in conflict is that we lose perspective. Our horizons shrink and we close off paths the Spirit is showing us.” Any Catholic will want to check out this powerful, easily digestible work. (Dec.)