Abstract

In Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis lays out a vision for political life grounded in encounter with the other and as essential for human being and becoming. In this vision, the political projects of specific groups of people, their historical contexts, and their particular identities are an essential element of political projects for the common good. This essay seeks to understand the political anthropology originally developed by Jorge Bergoglio that undergirds this vision. In Fratelli tutti, Francis puts this anthropology at the service of Catholic social teaching, distinguishing him from his two immediate predecessors. Such a political anthropology supports the transcendent value of the person as extending to the people, and, in turn, as extending to political life as well. As such, this becomes an important space from which we extend ourselves toward others as part of the task of humanization.