The Pope of Encounter and Dialogue

Pope Francis’s central ecological themes centered on his teachings of a “throwaway culture” and its antidote, the reminder that “everything is connected.” The first was introduced early in his papacy, during a 2013 General Audience, and the later would resonate throughout it, most especially in his 2015 eco-encyclical Laudato Si’.

But two other, interrelated themes were woven through his time with us. He spoke and wrote often of the need to build cultures of encounter as well as the importance of dialogue. These were for Francis foundational to fostering peace, understanding, and human dignity—and likewise to build cultures that cared for and nurtured God’s creation.

Pope Francis described a culture of encounter as a way of engaging others with openness, compassion, and respect, rooted in recognizing the dignity of every person. In a September 2016 morning meditation, the Holy Father said that such a culture calls for “not just seeing, but looking; not just hearing, but listening; not just passing people by, but stopping with them,” as reported by L'Osservatore Romano.

In his October 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Francis links a culture of encounter to St. Francis of Assisi’s vision of fraternity, extending it to all creation. He called for respectful dialogue that values differences without leveling them or turning them into sources of conflict, fostering a sense of universal kinship.

In this encyclical, Francis wrote,

True wisdom demands an encounter with reality. Today, however, everything can be created, disguised and altered. A direct encounter even with the fringes of reality can thus prove intolerable. A mechanism of selection then comes into play, whereby I can immediately separate likes from dislikes, what I consider attractive from what I deem distasteful. In the same way, we can choose the people with whom we wish to share our world. Persons or situations we find unpleasant or disagreeable are simply deleted in today’s virtual networks; a virtual circle is then created, isolating us from the real world in which we are living. (Fratelli Tutti 47)

The antidote of the isolation that comes from living within the echo chambers of our making is, of course, an encounter with the Triune God.

“If we go to the ultimate source of that love which is the very life of the Triune God, we encounter in the community of the three divine Persons the origin and perfect model of all life in society. Theology continues to be enriched by its reflection on this great truth.” (Fratelli Tutti 85)

Francis has always urged Christians to encounter those on the peripheries—migrants, refugees, the poor—emphasizing that such encounters reflect an encounter with Christ. Thus, the Holy Father saw the culture of encounter as a pathway to a promoting sustainable justice, peace, and care for our common home.

And at the center of such encounters must, of course, be authentic dialogue.

Approaching, speaking, listening, looking at, coming to know and understand one another, and to find common ground: all these things are summed up in the one word “dialogue”. If we want to encounter and help one another, we have to dialogue. There is no need for me to stress the benefits of dialogue. I have only to think of what our world would be like without the patient dialogue of the many generous persons who keep families and communities together. Unlike disagreement and conflict, persistent and courageous dialogue does not make headlines, but quietly helps the world to live much better than we imagine. (Fratelli Tutti 198)

From interreligious dialogue to that between nations, cultures, and families, growing to appreciate and knowing another must come from the basic foundation of human interconnectivity, which is speaking, hearing, and acknowledging the dignity of the people that share creation with us.

Francis's views cultures of encounter and dialogue as inseparable, urging a shift from exclusion and conflict to compassion, listening, and collaboration. His teachings and actions—grounded in scripture, personal example, and global outreach—call for a world where differences are respected, and all people are seen as brothers and sisters.

This all, of course, echoes throughout his great eco-anthem Laudato Si’: the interconnectedness of nature and all peoples; the need for nations to better know their global neighbors; and the absolute necessity for us to listen and respond to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.

And now, as the Church’s cardinal electors begin their encounters with one another—as they dialogue and learn about each other and each other’s corners of creation—let us pray that their encounter with the Holy Spirit may bring them wisdom. And thus may they elect for us a successor of Pope Francis who will urge the building of encounter and dialogue with clarity and boldness. For such things are needed always in a world where all things and all people are connected.