Journal of Catholic Social Thought

Though not part of the corpus of Catholic social teaching, Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World (Gaudete et exsultate) merits attention from a social-ethical perspective. The other-directed quality of Christian holiness draws Francis into the social dimension of the Gospel. The text’s meditation on the Beatitudes and the Last Judgment scene of Matthew 25 tethers holiness to empathy and justice for those who suffer. It also critiques ideologies within the Church whose hierarchy of evils constitutes our holistic response to the call of Jesus. The article places its exposition of Gaudete et exsultate within the context of theological literature on holiness and the early reception of the text in the Church. While the apostolic exhortation has important social content, its passing references to the common good and politics and its lack of explicit treatment of nonviolence represent a missed opportunity to deepen its message about what it means to live a holy life today.

This article retrieves the theme of “otherization” as it appears in the watershed postcolonial text Orientalism, by Edward Said, and applies it to another historically influential text on otherization, The Clash of Civilizations, by Samuel Huntington. A close comparative reading of Said’s and Huntington’s arguments reveals deep logical and moral flaws in both the postcolonial and civilizational-clash paradigms that each, respectively, represents. Pope Francis’s “mysticism of encounter” provides an alternative that overcomes these flaws. Francis’s framing of how to understand and approach difference, the article concludes, is superior precisely because of its theological content: In grounding the discourse about the other in God, Francis demonstrates how it is possible to cogently define the other as other without creating oppressive power hierarchies—an insight that provides greater promise for establishing solidarity among diverse peoples.

Mercy is the defining characteristic of Pope Francis’s leadership. Francis’s words and actions have made visible a discipline of mercy, which does more than illuminate God’s character and purpose; it offers an expansive imaginative framework to spark new possibilities for moral agency and growth. Before Francis, mercy received limited attention in the canon of Catholic social thought. Francis’s signature message of mercy retrieves a central moral duty in Scripture, provides a focal lens for Catholic social thought, and aims to inspire a “revolution of tenderness” capable of inspiring personal conversion and social change. This essay moves forward in three steps. It first unpacks the rich and diverse meaning of the word mercy and explores its undervalued role in CST; it then analyzes how mercy functions as the crux of Francis’s moral imagination; and finally, it explores how mercy expands possibilities for living the principles of Catholic social thought.

A recent report in the UK, Being Disabled in Britain: A Journey Less Equal, highlights the many inequalities, threats to dignity and discriminatory attitudes faced by disabled people. No doubt these are replicated in other countries. Using the evidenced-based findings from this report and the report’s invitation for those concerned to join the conversation on disability, this paper explores both the way in which the experiences of people with disabilities can sharpen up an understanding of Catholic social teaching and the way in which that teaching contributes to a deeper theology of disability. Moreover, insights from this teaching demonstrate that people with disabilities contribute significantly and positively to society and to interpersonal relationships.

In Laudato si’, Pope Francis says that the way to begin solving environmental problems is by “learning to see and appreciate beauty” (§ 215). Environmental ethicists have long known that beauty motivates people to protect nature. What form that takes depends upon how one defines beauty. In A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold shares not only his famous land ethic, but also a land aesthetic. This paper will show that Laudato si’ and A Sand County Almanac present similar aesthetics emphasizing receptivity to objective natural beauty. First, I will consider Pope Francis’s uses of beauty. I then look to how environmental ethicists have evaluated beauty to determine what makes an environmental aesthetic robust rather than superficial. Finally, I examine how A Sand County Almanac both demonstrates receptivity and forms the reader to be receptive. I contend that reading A Sand County Almanac represents one way to practice Pope Francis’s instructions.