Build new order to address today’s ‘polycrisis,’ Pope urges

March 03, 2025

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CWN Editor's Note: In a message to a Vatican conference on the end of the world, Pope Francis used the term “polycrisis” to refer to “the historical juncture we are currently witnessing, in which wars, climate changes, energy problems, epidemics, the migratory phenomenon and technological innovation converge.”

The Pope told participants in the conference—which was convened by the Pontifical Council for Life—that this “polycrisis” calls for an urgent and dramatic response. He remarked that world leaders had “squandered” an opportunity, presented by the Covid epidemic, to bring about a “transformation of consciences and social practices.

“Pandering to utilitarian and neo-liberal planetary deregulation means imposing the law of the strongest as the only rule; and it is a law that dehumanizes,” the Pope wrote.

The Pontiff thanked the Pontifical Academy for Life for its approach to contemporary problems, which he said was necessarily characterized by both listening and “social prophecy.” In particular he cited the Academy’s commitment to listen to science. Citing the example of the late Father Teilhard de Chardin, he remarked on the “ways of interpreting the world and its evolution, with the unprecedented forms of relatedness that correspond to it.”

Pope Francis observed that international institutions have slipped into “progressive irrelevance” in the face of today’s challenges. Nevertheless, quoting from his own encyclical Fratelli Tutti, he called for “more effective world organizations, equipped with the power to provide for the global common good, the elimination of hunger and poverty, and the sure defense of fundamental human rights.”

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