This essay examines how the framework of semioethics coheres with Pope Francis’sexistential dialogue and its application to ethical praxis enacted through spiritual, social, andphenomenological “networks of neighborliness.” Through an analysis of Pope Francis’s 48th and53rd World Communications Day Messages, which emphasize his evaluation of globalcommunication production systems, specifically, socially mediated networks, this essay explainshow the mutual aims of semioethics and Pope Francis’s dialogic ethics coalesce around theinterrelated, material, and metaphorical coordinates of “the net” and “neighborliness” to invitean indifferent world to dialogic conversion.

This essay examines how the framework of semioethics coheres with Pope Francis’s existential dialogue and its application to ethical praxis enacted through spiritual, social, and phenomenological “networks of neighborliness.” Through an analysis of Pope Francis’s 48th and 53rd World Communications Day Messages, which emphasize his evaluation of global communication production systems, specifically, socially mediated networks, this essay explains how the mutual aims of semioethics and Pope Francis’s dialogic ethics coalesce around the interrelated, material, and metaphorical coordinates of “the net” and “neighborliness” to invitean indifferent world to dialogic conversion.

In this paper, I discuss and theorize the semiosis that occurs when poetizing about dynamic, addressing, and mysterious Being-physis. Such poetizing is beneficial for the grasp of the natural law and, thus, for ethical formation. The defense of the natural law and its prescribed basic goods still is hindered to some extent by the modernist milieu that persists even today in our so-called postmodern era. I confront the lingering Cartesian spirit in its various modes—viz., the reductive obsession with speculative self-evident propositions as a foundation for moral ideas well as the tendency to trace the source of all intelligible insights to the subjective consciousness—in order to develop a different approach towards the defense of the natural law. Specifically, I marshal ideas in the later Martin Heidegger and the Thomistic tradition, including ideas in John of St. Thomas’ semiotics as retrieved by John Deely, to articulate the importance of “Anwesen arche-tecture” qua the environing of Being-physis and the poetizing of the same to amplify the voice of the natural law. I analyze the process of symbolic externalization when poetizing Being and consider the metaphysical implications of the medium’s contribution to semiosis, which would include an anti-nominalist theory of relations and an account of participated intentionality, and thus, of esse-in-the-world. This paper is a Thomistic appropriation of Heideggerian themes for “semioethical” or “significal” theorizing, moving back and forth (“translating”) across different philosophical paradigms and discourses to locate the matter (die Sache) for thinking.

St. Catherine of Siena’s life and writings illustrate the ways a person’s communication can provide guidance to others. Catherine exemplifies a dialogic responsiveness and commitment to semioethics by embodying her narrative tradition with an attentiveness toward charity and love toward others. Through an exploration of Catherine’s participation in society, giving specific attention to her effort to communicate with other people, this essay tells the story of St. Catherineof Siena; discusses her semioethics responsiveness through uncovering her dialogic approach grounded in the Catholic intellectual tradition; and addresses her responsiveness to others, using her letters to demonstrate her semioethics.