Towards a Fraternal Humanism
Francis of Assisi: Utopia is possible
To point out the most significant contribution of the Franciscans to the economy throughout history, we can suggest the movement from usury to interest and the identification of the specific character of the “productivity of capital”.
In this sense, a fundamental impulse has been the integration of the economic sphere, the governing sphere of civitas, and fraternity – the propriumof Franciscanism. The bringing together of these three different dynamics was achieved by way of a functional market for the common good. Suffice it to say, that in the first half of the fifteenth century, a great Franciscan preacher, Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444), while preaching in Italian squares, communicated to the people the economic analyses of the Franciscan tradition from the two previous centuries. In particular, with regard to the market, he thought it impermissible to ‘live off the fat of the land’, if one was capable of doing business, because he would be thus robbing the community. We see, therefore, a forerunner to a passage from ‘Laudato Si', in which Pope Francis criticizes toxic finances that risk stifling a living economy. In particular, the Sienese Friar Bernardino described, with synthesis and effectiveness, the characteristics that make the business of the entrepreneur positive for the community: efficiency, responsibility, industriousness, courage to venture, etc., many centuries before the details laid out in the work, ‘corporate social responsibility’ (Responsibilità Sociale d’Impresa).
Even for today, with its critical issues and global problems, Franciscanism proposes to all people the possible utopia of fraternity. Fraternity constitutes a true alternative that challenges and stems the fluctuations of an economy that is killing man and nature. It represents a change in the political, social, and economic paradigm, which, recognized and urged by Pope Francis in many of his passionate discourses, invites everyone to build a human community founded on the culture of "social bond" and “taking care".
Without fraternity, there can be no freedom, equality, or the common good. Fraternity is the prerequisite for these goods, because the interests of each individual are realized in relation to and together with the interests of others. Everyone achieves his or her own good by way of the contribution of everyone. It was the principle of fraternity that inspired the Franciscans to design and implement brilliant socio-economic institutions, such as the Monti di Pietà, Monti Frumentari and the system of "las Reducciones" in Latin America.
Keywords of the Franciscan lexicon, such as sobriety, solidarity, common good, gift, gratuity, sharing, fraternity, respect and care for creation, if held in common, are generative of fraternity in our current "liquid society", seemingly incapable of facing ongoing challenges.
According to such a perspective, people, diverse and scattered across all continents, are proposing initiatives that experiment with new forms of the economy, while respecting the environment and the bonds of fraternal proximity. Pope Francis invites us to look with trust and compassion upon these movements: “Despite this culture of waste, this culture of surplus, many of you, workers who are left out and considered expendable in this system, have invented your own work, using those things that no longer appeared usable; but with your craftsmanship, given to you by God, with your research, with your solidarity, with your work in common, with your popular economy, you have succeeded and you are succeeding … And, let me tell you, beyond work, this is poetry!” (Pope Francis, Address to the participants in the first world meeting of popular movements, Vatican City, 28 October 2014).
When John Paul II proclaimed Saint Francis of Assisi Patron Saint of the Ecology (1979), he intended to highlight, the specific Franciscan vision, which on the one hand, considers creation an immense act of gratuitousness and divine love for humanity; and on the other, the closeness and bond among all creatures. It is the recognition of fraternity, at the center of the Franciscan vision, which changes the political, economic and ecological perspective for the journey towards, what Pope Paul VI called, a "civilization of love".