Ruffini: Pope invites us to let
the network community free us
 |
| Paolo Ruffini with Pope Francis. (Vatican Media) |
On the occasion of the release of the theme for the 2019
World Communications Day, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication
comments on the Pope’s invitation to help young people reach freedom on social
media through truth.
By Francesca Merlo
Pope Francis announced the theme of the next World
Communications Day today: “We are all members of one another (Eph
4:25): from network community to human communities”. In an interview
with Vatican News, Paolo Ruffini, the new Prefect of the Dicastery for
Communication discusses what he thinks can help us shift from “network community”
to “human communities”.
Up to what point can we speak of real communities when we
are faced with the logic that characterises some of the communities of our
social networks? On the 2019 World Communications Day, Pope Francis once again
focuses his attention on his presence on social media through his Twitter and
Instagram accounts (@pontefix and @franciscus respectively)
Communities, not tribes
Ruffini underlines that “the risk that comes with the times
in which we live is that of building tribes rather than communities”. The
tribal logic is founded on the exclusion of others, on division, rather than on
community. He said the Franciscan sprit on which Pope Francis partly bases his
pontificate is precisely what the prayer of Saint Francis preaches: “Lord,
make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon…”. Only in this way can the web of a
network not be one that traps you, but one that becomes a tool of freedom –
acquiring its truest and more beautiful meaning.
Envy and resentment are destructive
Young people have always searched for moments and places in
which they can be brought together. The ‘network community’ helps young people
be particularly accessible, even if it is in a virtual dimension. Though “the
web they seek is one of people and not one of threads” but, as Ruffini says “if
the network community that we offer is formed on envy and resentment, then what
are we doing? We are destroying both their future and ours.”
Therefore, even if it is lived in a virtual dimension
through the tools of technological and digital communication, it is important
to pass from network communities founded on phony relationships and fake
friendships to “the beauty and also the hard work that comes with the truth of
an encounter”, he said.
Truth is freedom
“What are young people looking for? They are looking for
freedom, but only the truth can set them free.” In the words of Paolo Ruffini,
Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication.
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