In a message to the participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Pope Francis insists on the need to reassess our understanding of the cosmos, to listen to the contributions of science and to strengthen global institutions in order to respond to `Polycrisis ” confronted with our world.
By Christopher Wells
Pope Francis sent a message on Monday to the participants to the general meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2025, which was signed on February 26 at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
The Pope highlighted the simultaneous crises, or polycriris, in front of the world, including war, climate change, energy problems, epidemics, migration and technological innovation.
These questions arouse questions about the fate of the world and how we understand it, he said in his message to the Assembly, which sponsors an international workshop on “The end of the world?” Crises, responsibilities, hopes. »»
Overcome 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 resistance, as an individual and as a society, to change”. He deplored the missed opportunities to learn previous crises, such as the COVVI-19 pandemic, “to transform social consciences and practices”.
The Holy Father also insisted on the need to “avoid standing” and listen to the contribution of scientific knowledge “. The work of the Pontifical Academy, he said, echoes that of the Synod, which had “listened” to one of its keywords.
Pope Francis denounces the “panding to utility and planetary deregulation”, which, according to him, leads to the imposition of “the law of the strongest” – a law which “dehumanized”.
Straper for real life
On the contrary, new ways of seeing the world and evolution “can provide us with signs of hope”, which supports our journey and inspires us to reach out “with a momentum towards real life”.
This effort, however, necessarily takes place in a community context, said the Pope, stressing the need to find solutions to “a complex and planetary crisis”.
In this regard, Pope Francis has expressed his concern about “the progressive non-all of international organizations, which are compromised by short-sighted attitudes concerned with protecting particular and national interests”.
Strengthen global institutions
Instead, he argued, the human community must endeavor “more effective world organizations, invested with authority to ensure the common good of the world, the eradication of hunger and misery, and the safe defense of fundamental human rights”.
In turn, this can promote a multilateralism that does not depend on the vicissitudes of the policy or the interests of some, and encourages “stable efficiency”.
This said Pope Francis, is the general context of the work of the Academy, for which he thanked the members before entrusting them to the intercession of Mary, siege of wisdom and mother of hope.