A single human family

BLOG

A single human family

Dunstan, Community Projects Support Worker, reflects on fraternity and the power of friendship.

04 February 2025

A single human family

The International Day of Human Fraternity was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2020 and has been celebrated on the 4th February of each year since then.

The 4th February 2019 is the date on which Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar met in Abu Dhabi and jointly signed the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. The document is an ‘…invitation to reconciliation and fraternity among all believers, indeed among believers and non-believers, and among all people of good will’. Al-Azhar's Imam, Pope Francis Call for Tolerance, Peace

This encounter inspired Pope Francis to write Fratelli Tutti, which is subtitled ‘on fraternity and social friendship’: a letter addressed to all people of good will, whatever their religious convictions.

The Czeck theologian Tomáš Halík considers Fratelli Tutti to be ‘the most important document of our time, comparable to the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (The Afternoon of Christianity p. 209).


Why so? What is human fraternity? What is so important about Fratelli Tutti? Why is it worth remembering and celebrating this day of fraternity? Faced with the situation of the world, has it ever been more important to work for human fraternity?

Human fraternity is the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood between all human beings. It is the reality that we all belong to the same human family, we all deserve to be treated with dignity, that we are all owed equal access to the goods of the earth.

At a time when our world seems to be sorely lacking in peace and solidarity, with vicious cycles of violence and hatred all too apparent in our news cycles, Fratelli Tutti calls for the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity. Pope Francis invites us

‘…to think of ourselves more and more as a single family dwelling in a common home’ (FT, para 17).

At a time when our headlines are full of stories of hostility, exclusion and division, we are challenged to become neighbours to others: to

‘…put aside all differences and, in the face of suffering, to draw near to others with no questions asked’ (para 81).


Has it ever been more important to work for human fraternity?

At least for me, such a task can feel rather daunting. What can I do – I think to myself – faced with such an immense challenge? How can I make a real and lasting difference in the world, limited as I am?

Thankfully we do not walk alone. We have one another and we all have our part to play.

Perhaps the phrase which has particularly remained with me since reading Fratelli Tutti is

‘…the slow and gradual cultivation of friendships’ (para 43).

It is through cultivating friendships – friendships with people I might not normally meet or talk to – that I can help build up and work towards human fraternity.

It is through what Francis calls ‘social friendship’ that the bonds of society are reweaved.

It is through the healing of relationships between estranged groups – often involving processes of restorative justice and truth telling – that human fraternity can become more of a reality.


On a placement here at JRS UK, I am learning that the cultivation of friendships is at the heart of the work. I enjoyed speaking with Liliane who told me a bit about the befriending project at JRS.

During lockdown, Liliane said, refugee friends were experiencing loneliness and isolation and could not come to the Centre.

“‘What can we do to help them?’, we asked. This is where the project started.”

Teams of volunteers were recruited with the aim of reaching out.

‘What does it mean to befriend?’, I asked Liliane. She replied: ‘In befriending there is no specific topic to talk about’. ‘It shouldn’t become like an interview’, she continued. ‘It’s about walking alongside people’.

 

At the heart of the relationships is ‘care about the person‘. Thanks to this care, Liliane continued, ‘trust is built’.

Liliane sees the power in such relationships.

‘People who are closed, they open up: they grow in trust, they open up.’

Liliane’s moving words speak to the power and transformative effect of friendship in our lives.


So, on this day of human fraternity, perhaps we can all cultivate friendships outside our comfort zone and everyday social circles: to reach out to others and so – in small but important ways – to work towards a world of universal human fraternity.


[Back to the blog]

 

Jesuit Refugee Service UK
The Hurtado Jesuit Centre
2 Chandler Street, London E1W 2QT

020 7488 7310
uk@jrs.net

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe

Follow Us