Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti Provides New Year Message

As we enter the new year, Pope Francis offers some wonderful guidance.

The Pope writes in his new encyclical Fratelli Tutti “No one can possess the whole truth or satisfy his or her every desire, since that pretension would lead to nullifying others by denying their rights.”

So how can we go forward with a richer and fuller life?

By an openness to encountering others, not how we see them, but as they are.

He writes, “Life, for all its confrontations, is the art of encounter.”

Francis takes a stab against social media, or a view of social media that says it’s more than it is.

He writes, “Digital connectivity is not enough to build bridges. It is not capable of uniting humanity.”

He writes near the end, “Kindness facilitates the quest for consensus; it opens new paths where hostility and conflict would burn all bridges.”

He offers great advice and encouragment, especially as we see outselves on the threshold of a new year.

Happy New Year!