I’ve got a game or a challenge for you: Can you name any saint(s) who feature in every single encyclical that Pope Francis undertook to write?

Rules of the game

1. Although Lumen Fidei (2013) is an encyclical letter published by Pope Francis, it was initiated (and to a significant extent written) by Pope Benedict XVI. For the purposes of this game, we need to think of what general themes Francis himself chose from the beginning to talk about. The issue is what is deep in his own heart and magisterium. For these purposes, the three encyclicals in question are Laudato Si’ (2015), Fratelli Tutti (2020), and Dilexit Nos (2024).
2. Featuring means featuring: the inclusion makes a particular, unique point. If possible, we want substantial points about lived experience rather than a proof-text-like quote coming from the pen of a systematic thinker.
3. Sainted popes don’t count, because in context their appearance is more a question of ongoing magisterial development.
4. New Testament saints don’t count for a similar reason: this is primarily a case of drawing on Scripture.

The answer—spoilers

As far as I can tell, the only non-papal, post-NT saint who is discussed in all three encyclicals of Pope Francis is Charles de Foucauld—whose feast day is celebrated on December 1^st, today. Surprise!

Correct me if I’m wrong and it turns out there’s someone else who makes their way into all three documents. However, the other usual suspects don’t fit the criteria. The papal namesake from Assisi isn’t in Dilexit Nos, and despite recently getting her own apostolic exhortation, Thérèse of Lisieux isn’t in Fratelli Tutti.

Among the great Fathers and pre-modern Doctors, if you want to consider them, there are surprises. Augustine and John Chrysostom don’t make it to the “care for our common home” party. Meanwhile, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Basil the Great do make it into all three encyclicals, but often in the form of a single quote functioning more like a proof-text than a discussion of a unique, unrepeatable voice or development. You could say that Thomas, Bonaventure, and Basil count (and what an interesting trio to ponder they form in themselves!). But this kind of quoting of the ancients isn’t exactly what catches my eye.

I can’t come up with anyone else who might feature in all three Francis-initiated encyclicals. Certainly no one who has had so many lines and paragraphs written about them as Charles de Foucauld—and that of course is the real point.

Maybe some day soon, some scholar or spiritual writer or journalist, at least, might spot the neglected golden thread and start to talk about it. Pope Francis truly is the most prominent member of the spiritual family of Charles de Foucauld to ever have a voice in the Church, and he expresses this relationship and dependence in more highest-level papal teachings than even his well-noted friendships with il Poverello and the Little Flower.

(Before you despair about where to read up on this: there’s substantial research, documentation, and discussion of the Foucauld–Bergoglio connection on this blog.)