The initiative, Civilize It: A Better Kind of Politics, “aims to equip Catholics to address the division and polarization in society that are at times also reflected in the Church,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. “My hope is that this initiative will assist all of us as we seek to ‘become neighbors to all,’ as the Holy Father calls us to do, and take up the challenges of encounter, dialogue, truth-seeking, and creative problem-solving, in order that all Catholics can work together for the common good.”

Pope Francis’s third encyclical letter, Fratelli tutti, was devoted to fraternity and social friendship.