Magnitude not seen since the Second World War; Great challenge;
On this continent people travel north for a better life for themselves and their loved ones; is it not what we want for our own children?
Not numbers; persons; seeing their faces, listening to their stories and responding as best we can to their situation.
Rights of those before us were not always respected; “when the stranger in our midst appears to us, we must not repeat the sins and errors of the past.”
Focus on MLK, jr. and the Selma march–America remains a world of dreams which lead to action; “not fearful of foreigners because most of us were once foreigners”
The voice of fraternity and love … after observing the danger of religiously inspired violence that perverts this core
Emphasis here seems to be on overcoming polarizations for the common good in the midst of unjust structures …he’s done his homework on the American political scene.
“Simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil … righteous or sinners …confront every form of polarization” —
Americans who offer, for Francis a window on reality and its possibilities … Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.
With the workers who “sustain” the nation, the elderly, the young with their noble aspirations …
Pope answers some claims re: his comments on environment, public policy, etc. here: “A healthy pluralism, one which genuinely respects differences and values them as such, does not entail privatizing religions in an attempt to reduce them to the quiet obscurity of the individual’s conscience or to relegate them to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques” (255).
One of the more challenging statements:
“Evangelization consists mostly of patience and disregard for the constraints of time”; “Something similar is happening with priests who are obsessed with protecting their free time …” And later on Time: “time is greater than space” (223).
Well, I don’t know about priests, but I know this is a constant temptation for me! Some of his comments on how we use our time are the most challenging in this first encyclical and least commented on.