Fratelli Tutti

This volume is the first truly global commentary on a papal encyclical. Pope Francis published Fratelli Tutti in October 2020 in the midst of interrelated global crises: climate catastrophe, ongoing racial injustice, a widening gap between the rich and the desperately poor, battles over human migration, the rise of authoritarian politics, and the erosion of democracy, all exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The encyclical provided a sobering assessment of the devastation but also a hopeful vision of solidarity and healing. The responses in this book not only reflect on Fratelli Tutti from a great diversity of locations and perspectives but also attempt to model Francis’s call to fraternity and sorority within this volume. In these pages, scholars from around the world create a conversation meant to embody one of the virtues that Francis elicits in the encyclical: creative openness to the reciprocal gifts of others. This book takes up Pope Francis’s invitation to continue talking, thinking, and acting, always in a climate of both confidence and audacity, to promote social friendship among the people of the world.

William T. Cavanaugh is director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology and professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University in Chicago. His areas of specialization are political theology, economic ethics, and ecclesiology. His publications include Field Hospital: The Church's Engagement in Markets, Politics, and Conflict; Migrations of the Holy: Theologies of State and Church; and The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict.


Carlos Mendoza-Álvarez, OP, is a tenured professor in the Department of Theology at Boston College and a member of the board of directors of Concilium: International Journal of Theology. His fundamental theology develops a critical dialogue with late modernity. He has published twenty-five collective works, over fifty journal articles, and eight books, the latest of which is La resurrección como insurrección messiánica: Duelo, memoria y esperanza desde los sobrevivientes (2019).


Ikenna U. Okafor is a Nigerian-born adjunct professor of intercultural theology at the University of Vienna and a pastor in the Archdiocese of Vienna. His research interests are in themes related to fraternity, intercultural and interreligious relations, and African theology. He is the author of Toward an African Theology of Fraternal Solidarity: UBE NWANNE (Pickwick, 2014) and the co-editor of volumes 2 and 3 of Faith in Action, also published by Pickwick.


Daniel Franklin Pilario, CM, is an associate professor at St. Vincent School of Theology and director of research at Adamson University in Manila. He received his PhD in theology and religious studies and Sacra Theologia Doctor (SThD) from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. His publications focus on theological method, inculturation, political theology, Catholic social teaching, human rights, and ecology. He also serves as a minister of a garbage dump parish in Quezon City, Philippines.