St. Francis depicted in Giotto’s 13th-Century painting Predica agli uccelli. Credits: christusrex.org. Even the most optimistic among us would not dispute that our world is currently in a desperate state. From climate change to armed conflict, from pollution to widespread inequality, humanity suffers from innumerable afflictions. While some afflictions are more recent phenomena than others, how we cope with this suffering, and how we go about reducing the pain we inflict on ourselves and others,…