In his new book “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future,: Pope Francis advocates a Copernican revolution in our politics. Instead of viewing politics from the places of political and economic power, he summons us to see it from the vantage point of the peripheries. For Francis, the “often forgotten people” are the true center of the political firmament.

Francis addresses our culture on its own terms to point out its spiritual vacuum. Western conceptions of liberty and equality have become untethered from the idea of solidarity and a vision of a truly common good. The “demagogic p...