Currently, from various ideologies and ideologizations of reality and faith, with their respective fundamentalisms or extremist polarizations that touch each other, there is a ruthless attack and denial on Pope Francis or other Popes along with the rejection of the Second Vatican Council, of the same faith and church. In this article we will show, with the sources and texts in hand, the fidelity and continuity of Francis with his predecessors in the conciliar horizon, of ecclesial communion. And it is only necessary to study and investigate well the teaching of the Pope such as, for example, Evangelii gaudium (EG), Laudato si’ (LS), Fratelli tutti (FT) or Querida Amazonia (QA). In this magisterium of Francis, in line with the Word of God and the Tradition of the Church with its Holy Fathers or Doctors, the faith is transmitted to us with its integral ethical and spiritual humanism inspired by faith. As Saint John Paul II in his programmatic Encyclical Letter Redemptor hominis (RH) and Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate (CV) teach us, transmitting to us their anthropological, humanist and personalist message, rooted in faith, which supports the social, moral and ecological teaching of the Church (DSI; RH 10; EG 224).
Saint John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo rei socialis (SRS)) and Francis (LS 236-240, FT 85), inspired by faith, affirm the life, dignity and transcendence of the person founded on the same Triune God (SRS 40). The human being is the image and son of God the Creator and Father, is saved by his only Son Jesus Christ and vivified as a temple of the Holy Spirit. In this line, the Trinity God roots a metaphysics of these constitutive human, social and historical interrelations as Benedict XVI so wisely shows (CV 54). Indeed, in the wake of Vatican II (GS 24), the Trinity is the core, principle and paradigmatic model of fraternal and supportive communion for human, social, political and economic realities and relations (LS 238; FT 85).
In the legacy of St. Paul VI with Populorum progressio (PP), the DSI and St. John Paul II in his teaching with SRS communicate to us a whole humanism/personalism of fraternal love and solidarity with its ethical, social and international, universal and concrete (Catholic) spheres. Beyond all barriers and borders, with a planetary perspective and integration as Benedict XVI also emphasizes (CV 42) and which Francis continues (FT 114-117). In this regard, as we will continue to explore, emphasizing the importance of natural law, Benedict XVI, in line with St. John XXIII in Pacem in Terris (PT 294), affirms that this ethic of global solidarity fraternity: necessarily requires world (international) authorities and institutions that consolidate the control and management of planetary government, for human development with an integral ecology (CV 59, 67). Francis underlines this relevance of said world authority or organization, of an international character, as a concrete mediation to implement this universal, solidary morality and policy of peace and global justice with human rights. As corresponds to the Gospel of Jesus, with its Samaritan culture and ethics (FT 173-175).
It is this authentic solidarity with the responsible, firm and constant commitment, for the most universal common good that frees us globally and integrally from evil, from sin and injustice, both personal and structural (those structures of sin) that feed off each other (SRS 39). Fraternal solidarity and justice with the option for the poor (SRS 42), for the crucified (victims) of history or the oppressed, where Christ, poor and crucified, is sacramentally present (Mt 25:31-46). This Word of God, Tradition with the Holy Fathers and the Magisterium of the Church, has always transmitted that “Jesus identifies himself with the poor” (Benedict XVI, DCE 15). Hence the evil and sin of those idolatries of wealth – being rich, of possessing and having that go against being, this life and sacred and inviolable dignity of every person and of the impoverished, as Saint John Paul II (SRS 28) and Francis (LS 48-52, FT 189) continue to transmit with a real humanist and personalist horizon.
For this reason, in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor (VS), with this humanist and personalist sense embedded in faith, Saint John Paul II reaffirms the “respect due to the human person” (VS 80), continuing the humanist legacy and personalist seeds of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In this way, the working person, the life and dignity of each person with their duties or rights, such as a fair salary, comes before capital, profit and gain. As Saint John Paul II (LE 12-13) continues to masterfully transmit to us, continued by Benedict XVI (CV 63-64) and Francis (LS 124-129, FT 162) with that permanent humanist and personalist key supported by faith. Because of the intrinsic sociable nature of the person and of all creation, the principle of the universal destiny of goods, a natural and first right, comes before property. It is the unavoidable and inherent dimension of solidarity and social property, as emphasized by Saint John Paul II (LE 14, SRS 42), and currently, with Francis (LS 93-95, FT 118-120).
And as a substratum of this civilization of work versus that of capital, there is that of poverty versus wealth, nourished in this tradition by the Holy Fathers (LS 93-95, FT 118-120). Already Saint John Paul II (SRS 31) with Vatican II (GS 69) emphasize the holiness and militancy lived in fraternal charity, which is realized in spiritual poverty and solidarity. That is, following the God revealed (incarnated) in Jesus humble and poor-crucified, the communion of life, of goods and of action for justice with the poor of the earth. Against these false gods and idols of wealth-being rich, of possessive individualism and violence, so typical of these bourgeois and totalitarian existences. This is what the saints have lived and witnessed, (for example) St. Francis of Assisi, as Francis points out (FT 2), who are pioneers, models and inspirers of all this integral and faith-inspired humanism and personalism.
Therefore, Francis continues and deepens his predecessors such as St. John Paul II in Centesimus annus (CA 35) or Benedict XVI (CV 37-38), who already outline integral ecology (CA 37-40, CV 48-52) with this interdisciplinary dialogue with the sciences, such as the human or social sciences; thus laying the solid foundations of this social and moral teaching that encourages spiritual, ethical and ecological conversion, this integral ecology with a just peace. The spiritual, human, social and environmental ecology that shows the natural, moral and divine law. True human nature, with its sense of transcendence (LS 155), is the firm pillar of the defence of life, dignity and human rights. Just as, in turn, the Thomistic legacy transmits in a pioneering way with the school of Salamanca, Vitoria, Soto, Montesinos or Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo and San José de Anchieta (QA 65). It is therefore visible how social and ethical teaching with integral ecology has as its foundation this qualified anthropology, equally nourished by faith, as Benedict XVI masterfully taught (CV 75).
The above clearly and necessarily presupposes a scientific, personalist and global bioethics, as Benedict XVI so rightly continues to communicate (CV 72). It is necessary and clear to observe how natural law expresses global, worldwide and universal ethics, so proper to faith as taught by the Word and Tradition of faith, which is basic for the control and regulation of this era, the globalization in which we find ourselves. Integral ecology with global bioethics, therefore, promotes the care and protection of human life and integrity in all its phases, from the beginning with conception as evidenced by science (EV 60), in its development and natural death. Just as Francis teaches (LS 115-122, FT 18-19), in continuity with Saint John Paul II (EV 3) and Benedict XVI (CV 71-75), also prologuing the legacy of Vatican II (GS 27). Following the guidance of this Council, based on this natural and moral law, St. John Paul II affirms that all these acts contrary to life and “the respect due to the human person” are “intrinsically evil” (“intrinsece malum”) (VS 80).
In this sense, together with this teaching of St. John Paul II with Benedict XVI, Francis (FT 208-209) teaches the decisive importance of “human nature” with its natural and moral law, which transmits to us the “truths” of ethics and permanent “universal values.” “Moral norms that prohibit intrinsic evil, without privileges or exceptions for anyone” (FT 209). From the very beginning of his teaching, Pope Francis shows this objective truth and consistency of morality, with its principles or values that cannot be renounced and cannot be negotiated, in contrast to all relativistic and nihilistic individualism (LS 122-123).
In this natural and moral law, as a constitutive content of this human and integral ecology, it is necessary to promote an adequate sexuality and affectivity of man with woman. That is, the anthropological diversity and complementarity of the masculine with the feminine with that communion of faithful love, of fruitful life that sustains the reality of marriage and of the family and children. Marriage and family are a sanctuary of life, of a sociable, virtuous, ethical and supportive existence, committed to the common good and justice for the poor. In the path of Saint John Paul II with Familiaris consortio (FC), Francis shows all this with his teaching on human and integral ecology (LS 155, FT 208-209) and the joy of human love (AL) with its psychological, emotional, affective, ethical and social realities (AL 146, 183 and 291). The Popes thus make visible a marriage and family imbued with humanism and personal solidarity and inspired by faith, in a state of mission, with that existence of spiritual poverty and solidarity, which becomes militancy for the common good, for peace and justice with the poor. Against the bourgeois, individualistic and unsupportive concept of marriage and family.
Since Pius XI, the teaching of the Church communicates the essential importance of a more universal and extensive love, political charity, which is essential for morality and faith. It is the constitutive civil love, with its public and institutional character, of reality and theological faith; with that central virtue of political charity, inseparably united to social and international justice, which seeks the civilization of love and the good of all humanity. In this regard, justice, together with human development and integral ecology, make up a just peace that, as is already found in Vatican II (GS 80-82) and Popes such as St. John Paul II (CA 52, EV 27), opposes all war and violence, and therefore the idea of a just war can no longer be sustained (FT 258). This same thing had been pointed out previously by St. John Paul II, who rejected “this concept of a just war” (Journey from the UK to Rome, 2-6-1982). We end, on this path of the tradition and magisterium of the Church, with the transcendent (eschatological) hope that Francis transmits to us. That “security that we have. Jesus is the eternally living. Clinging to Him we will live and go through all the forms of death and violence that lurk on the path” (Christus vivit 127).
