Pope Francis calls for
multilateralism in a world facing "polycrisis" (Copyright 2011
Brett Jorgensen Photography)
Pope: Global ‘polycrisis’ demands listening to science, strengthening
institutions
In a message to participants in the Pontifical Academy for
Life’s General Assembly, Pope Francis insists on the need to reevaluate our
understanding of the cosmos, listen to the contributions of science, and
strengthen global institutions in order to respond to the ‘polycrisis’ facing
our world.
By Christopher Wells
Pope Francis sent a message on Monday to participants in the
Pontifical Academy for Life’s 2025 General Assembly. The message was dated
February 26 from Rome's Gemelli Hospital.
The Pope highlighted the concurrent crises, or
polycrisis, facing the world, including war, climate change, energy problems,
epidemics, migration, and technological innovation.
These issues prompt questions about the fate of the world
and how we understand it, he said in his message to the Assembly, which is
sponsoring an international workshop on “The End of the World? Crises,
Responsibilities, Hopes.”
Overcoming resistance to change
In response to these questions, the Pope said, we must first
examine our understanding of the world and the cosmos, in order to overcome our
“deep-seated resistance, as individuals and as a society, to change.” He
lamented missed opportunities to learn from previous crises, such as the
Covid-19 pandemic, “to transform consciences and social practices.”
The Holy Father also insisted on the need to “avoid standing
still” and to “listen to the contribution of scientific knowledge.” The work of
the Pontifical Academy, he said, echoes that of the Synod, which had
“listening” as one of its keywords.
Pope Francis went on to denounce the “pandering to
utilitarian and planetary deregulation,” which he said leads to the imposition
of “the law of the strongest"—a law that “dehumanizes.”
Striving for true life
On the contrary, new ways of seeing the world and evolution
“can provide us with signs of hope,” a hope which sustains our journey and
inspires us to reach out “with impetus towards true life.”
This striving, however, necessarily takes place in a
communitarian context, the Pope said, pointing to the need to find solutions to
“a complex and planetary crisis.”
In this regard, Pope Francis expressed concern about the
“progressive irrelevance of international bodies, which are being undermined by
short-sighted attitudes concerned with protecting particular and national
interests.”
Strengthening global institutions
Instead, he argued, the human community must strive “for
more effective world organizations, invested with authority to ensure the
common good of the world, the eradication of hunger and misery, and the sure
defense of fundamental human rights.”
This, in turn, can promote a multilateralism that does not
depend upon the vicissitudes of politics or the interests of the few, and can
encourage a “stable effectiveness.”
This, Pope Francis said, is the broad context of the
Academy’s work, for which he thanked the members before entrusting them to the
intercession of Mary, Seat of Wisdom and Mother of Hope.
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