Communicate by witnessing
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| Pope Francis and Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication (ANSA) |
Speaking to the media team of the Holy See, the Successor of
Peter suggests a different way of communicating, an attitude that follows the
example of the Christian martyrs.
By Andrea Tornielli
"Communicating through witnessing, communicating by
involving oneself in communication, communicating with nouns, naming things,
communicating like martyrs, that is, as witnesses of Christ, as martyrs.
Learning the language of the martyrs, which is the language of the
Apostles".
It was Pope Francis’ first opportunity to meet and greet
personally all the employees (journalists, technicians, administrative staff)
of the new Dicastery for Communications, the Vatican Department that has
brought together nine former autonomous communications entities of the Holy
See. The Pope handed over the text of his prepared speech and then spoke off
the cuff, inviting us communicators to be witnesses, to restore value to nouns
rather than adjectives and adverbs, and above all to carry out our daily task
following the example of the martyrs.
That invitation of the Pope is one that touches the heart of
our work. He did not give "technical" advice; he did not tell us if
we need to provide our listeners, readers and viewers with more news coverage,
or if we need to do more or fewer video news, radio interviews or written
articles. Instead, he reminded us of the essential: communication for the media
of the Holy See, communication for a Christian, means witness. In order to give
witness we need, first of all, to live, to get involved, to let ourselves be
touched deeply by the realities we encounter and recount. We need to let
ourselves be wounded by the dramatic stories lived by other people, and then
know how to communicate the beauty, truth, and hope of those stories.
Pope Francis' words provide concrete indications, especially
on the eve of an important ecclesial event like the Synod on the Amazon. They
represent a compass to navigate the crowded sea of the media, and the jungle of
social networks. These are characterized by daily examples of evangelical
counter-witness on the part of those who reduce faith to politics, or who
represent the life of the Church, the Body of Christ, as a gang war. Those who
reduce the magisterium to slogans, or use a language of division, or who mock
their brothers and sisters in the faith, their pastors, and the Successor of
Peter.
Having before our eyes the example of the martyrs, as the
Pope told us, is the style of evangelical witness. "It is our martyrs”, he
explained, “who give life to the Church: not our artists, our great preachers,
our custodians of ‘true and integral doctrine’". The witness of the
martyrs is the witness of those who gave their lives for the Gospel, who have
always made their love for the enemy prevail, who have followed in the
footsteps of the One who chose to sacrifice Himself for the salvation of all.
This is something a Christian can never forget when communicating, when trying
to witness to communion, not division; when communicating the love that unites,
not the hatred that divides; the nature of the Church, not its reduction to a
structure guided by a purely human, political, divisive logic.
Is this attitude one that could often appear to go against
the flow with respect to mainstream media? Yes it is. But it is the task that
the Successor of Peter entrusts to us. He asks us not to pursue a success
linked to “clicks” and "likes", but to offer instead a witness that
creates bonds and relationships through our daily work as communicators. Above
all, he invites us to offer those who hear us, see us, or read us – a glimpse
of beauty, truth and hope.
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