Abstract

The speech of Pope Francis gave rise to an interpretative vulgate: Jorge Bergoglio would have let Catholicism into the philosophic universe of political modernity. This contribution wants to propose another reading. It shows that Pope Francis aims at promoting a line which articulates «truth» and «compromise », in the line of Paul VI to whom he often refers. Nothing in its texts reveals, indeed, a defence of the principle of autonomous subjectivity. Human acting has to join within the framework of an objective order finding its foundation in the divine-natural law. Such a line does not prevent however that compromises can be realized, in an Aristotelian way: it is necessary to adapt to the moral imperfections of the world. For Pope Francis, this compromise contains an ethical value: it supposes to seize the man as free consciousness. However, it encompasses a strategic dimension, which this article also indicates: the compromise allows to resume the dialog with the secularized peripheries.