Human Brotherhood and the Role of Literature

Rome [ENA] The conference: « HUMAN FRATERNITY in a DIVIDED WORLD. Writers Engage the Legacy of Pope Francis » opened on June 9, 2025, in the splendid setting of Villa Malta in Rome. It was organized by Georgetown University in the presence of writers, poets and diplomats to the Holy See, such as the Ambassador of Japan, H.E. Chiba Akira and H.E. Sima Avramovic, Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia. After the institutional

Paul Elie Geogetown University

greetings of Prof. Deborah Tonelli, representative of Georgetown University in Italy, the speeches were given by Rev. Nuno da Silva Gonçalves, S.J., Editor-in-chief, La Civiltà Cattolica, by Thomas Banchoff, Vice President for Global Engagement, Georgetown University and by Rev. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, who recalled the salient moments of his meetings with Pope Francis in which culture and literature were discussed. In October 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis outlined a vision of hope, equality, and human fraternity in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers) by the words of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Five years later, the Georgetown Global Dialogues bring leading novelists and thinkers to Rome to explore the theme of human fraternity and its future in our divided world. Presenters include writers Pankaj Mishra, Naomi Klein, Eva Menasse, Hisham Matar, Mohsin Hamid, Tash Aw, Kamila Shamsie, Nesrine Malik, Juan Gabriel Vázquez, Zadie Smith, Javier Cercas, and poet Ranjit Hoskote. Imagining human brotherhood in a world divided by rancor, where so many live in a state of constant confusion and fear, requires a new impetus in the wake of what Pope Francis has envisioned. Literature helps us see the cruelty, the pervasiveness of suffering, and the possibilities for solidarity beyond deep divisions. Literature can expand

Pankaj Mishra and Naomi Klein,

the human capacity for self-transcendence and encourage greater awareness of common human fragility as a vital limit to great projects of power, control, and conquest. Inspired by the legacy of Pope Francis, the Conference explores, through the testimonies of writers, the moral and spiritual concerns of the literature of our time. Poets, storytellers, filmmakers, and artists - said the Pope - are also "those who shape our imagination." A work that also has "an impact on the spiritual imagination of people of our time, especially with regard to the figure of Christ."

The relationship between literature, spirituality, and society is rich both in Catholicism and in the great religious and wisdom traditions of the world. It is increasingly necessary to support and deepen, in our tumultuous times, Pope Francis' call for a "culture of encounter" as explained in the Encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" and his emphasis on literature as a means of encounter that indicates/opens ways out in a divided world on the brink of the great revolution of artificial intelligence.