Pope Francis: ‘Rhetoric of inclusion’ is not enough to forge a ‘culture of social tenderness’

Pope Francis said on Wednesday that the “rhetoric of inclusion” alone is not enough to forge a true “culture of social tenderness.”

In his general audience address on March 30, the pope described “inclusion” as “the ritual formula of every politically correct discourse.”

But he said that invoking “inclusion” did not guarantee a “real correction” of the tendency to marginalize society’s frailest members.

“Certainly, the rhetoric of inclusion is the ritual formula of every politically correct discourse. But it still does not bring about a real correction of the practices of normal co-existence: a culture of social tenderness struggles to grow,” he said.

“No: the spirit of human fraternity ⁠— which I felt it was necessary to relaunch forcefully ⁠— is like a discarded garment, to be admired, yes, but … in a museum. We lose human sensitivity, we lose these movements of the spirit that make us human.”

The pope was speaking in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall on March 30 during his fifth live-streamed catechesis on old age, part of a series he launched in February.

He focused on the story in St. Luke’s Gospel of the encounter between two elderly figures, Simeon and Anna, and the Child Jesus.

“Simeon knows, by a premonition of the Holy Spirit, that he will not die before seeing the Messiah. Anna attends the temple every day, devoting herself to his service,” he observed.

“Both of them recognize the presence of the Lord in the Child Jesus, who fills their long wait with consolation and reassures them as they bid farewell to life.”

The pope said that a lifetime of patient waiting for God had sharpened Simeon and Anna’s spiritual senses.

“Today we need this more than ever: we need an old age gifted with lively spiritual senses capable of recognizing the signs of God, or rather, the Sign of God, who is Jesus,” he commented.

The pope warned pilgrims that contemporary society was suffering from an “anesthesia of the spiritual senses.”

“The anesthesia of the spiritual senses — and this is ugly — in the excitement and stultification of those of the body, is a widespread syndrome in a society that cultivates the illusion of eternal youth, and its most dangerous feature lies in the fact that it is mostly unconscious,” he said.

“We do not realize we are anesthetized. And this happens: it has always happened and it happens in our times.”

He explained that this “anesthesia” did not mean simply that people no longer thought of God or religion.

“The insensitivity of the spiritual senses relates to compassion and pity, shame and remorse, fidelity and devotion, tenderness and honor, one’s own responsibility and sorrow for another,” he said.

The pope added that old age was “the first casualty of this loss of sensitivity.”