The news that Pope Francis has written a letter to Tony Abbott makes one pause. In the terms now used to describe the exchanges between leaders, was the letter a shirtfront, a head-butt, a big hug, or a yellow card?
The letter, of course, was none of these things. It was written to Abbott as chair of the G20 Summit and was directed through him to the national representatives taking part. It is usual for Popes to write such letters: a recent example was one to the Secretary of the UN about the situation in Northern Iraq. They set out the views of the Vatican on significant issues.
This letter begins by summarising uncontroversially the G20 Agenda. Any distinctive papal emphases may lie in the adjectives. The meeting aims not only at providing employment, but ‘dignified and stable employment for all’. It demands a ‘fair and adequate’ system of taxation. The focus is not on narrowly economic goals but on the good of human beings.
The letter then emphasises that ‘many lives are at stake behind these political and technical discussions’. People suffer from malnutrition, from rising unemployment, especially among the young, from increasing social exclusion leading to crime and terrorism, and from continued assaults on the natural environment.
The Pope hopes that the meeting will lead to consensus, and that its results will be be measured, not only by global indices but also by ‘real improvement in the living conditions of poorer families and the reduction of all forms of unacceptable inequality’.
This focus on the human implications of the G20 deliberations leads Pope Francis to urge a broader definition of the responsibilities of the nations involved. These are set in framework of the UN Development Agenda ‘which ought to include the vital issues of decent work for all and climate change’.
The letter also sets the Summit in the context of military conflicts, and of calls for the G20 to help forge an agreement, under the United Nations, to halt aggression in the Middle East. It should also work to eliminate the causes of terrorism which include ‘poverty, underdevelopment and exclusion’, and to meet the needs of victims of the conflicts, especially of refugees.
This leads the Pope to consider the need of the international community, and so of the G20 nations, ‘to protect individuals and peoples from extreme attacks on human rights and a total disregard for humanitarian law’. In one of the most striking features of the letter, this response to terrorism is coupled with the need to protect people from other forms of aggression, most notably ‘abuses in the financial system such as those transactions that led to the 2008 crisis, and more generally, to speculation lacking political or juridical constraints and the mentality that maximization of profits is the final criterion of all economic activity’. To equate terrorism and greed in the markets is a strong call.
Many of the topics raised in the letter are subjects of controversy in Australia. They include refugees, inequality, climate change, regulation of the financial sector and the need to focus on the needs of the poor. But Pope Francis does not prescribe policies to deal with them. So there is no implied rebuke for Mr Abbott or other members of the G20. But they are challenged to set their discussion within a broader framework that puts people first. And their citizens are invited to judge their leaders and their policies by the extent to which they do put people first.
The participants in the G20 will be unlikely to see the Pope’s letter as a shirtfront. They will probably treat it rather as a hospital pass – one best left for the brave to grasp. That is suggested by the narrow focus of the meeting on things that can be achieved and by the omission of large issues like climate change. The trouble with swerving away from hospital passes, though, is that the watchers may see you as cowardly. Particularly if they see people like Obama and Xi Jinping putting their bodies in and galloping down the field to score.
Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street.