The Vatican published today the message of Pope Francis on the occasion of the 57th World Day of Social Communications, which will be celebrated on May 23, 2023 under the theme “Speak with the heart, ‘in truth and in love’ ( Eph 4, fifteen)”.
Below is the full message from Pope Francis:
Dear brothers and sisters:
Pope Francis highlights the importance of silence in churches before and after Mass
After having reflected, in previous years, on the verbs “go, see” and “listen” as conditions for good communication, in this Message for the LVII World Day of Social Communications I would like to focus on “speak with the heart”.
It is the heart that has moved us to go, see and listen; and it is the heart that moves us to open and welcoming communication. After having practiced listening -which requires waiting and patience, as well as refusing to affirm our point of view in a prejudiced way-, we can enter into the dynamics of dialogue and exchange, which is precisely that of communicating cordially.
Once we have listened to the other with a pure heart, we will be able to speak “in truth and in love” (cf. Eph 4,15). We must not be afraid to proclaim the truth, even if it is sometimes uncomfortable, but to do it without charity, without heart. Because “the program of the Christian -as Benedict XVI wrote- is a ‘heart that he sees'”. A heart that, with its beating, reveals the truth of our being, and that is why we must listen to it. This leads the listener to tune in to the same wavelength, to the point that one can feel the other’s heartbeat in one’s own heart. Then the miracle of the encounter becomes possible, which allows us to look at each other with compassion, accepting each other’s weaknesses with respect, instead of judging by hearsay and sowing discord and divisions.
Jesus reminds us that each tree is recognized by its fruit (cf. Lk 6,44), and warns that “the good man, from the good treasure of his heart, draws what is good; and the bad man, from the evil treasure he draws out what is bad; for out of the abundance of his heart from him his mouth from him speaks” (v. 45). Therefore, to be able to communicate “in truth and in love” it is necessary to purify the heart. Only by listening and speaking with a pure heart can we see beyond appearances and overcome the confusing noises that, also in the field of information, do not help us discern the complexity of the world in which we live.
The call to speak from the heart radically challenges our time, so prone to indifference and indignation, sometimes based on misinformation, which falsifies and exploits the truth.
Communicate Cordially
Communicating cordially means that whoever reads or listens to us captures our participation in the joys and fears, in the hopes and sufferings of the women and men of our time. Whoever speaks like this loves the other, because he cares about him and guards his freedom from him without violating it. We can see this style in the mysterious Pilgrim conversing with the disciples on their way to Emmaus after the tragedy on Golgotha. The risen Jesus speaks to them with his heart of him, respectfully accompanying his path of pain, proposing himself and not imposing himself, opening their minds with love to understand the profound meaning of what happened.
In fact, they can exclaim with joy that their hearts burned in their chests as He talked with them along the way and explained the Scriptures (cf. Lk 24:32). In a historical period marked by polarizations and oppositions -of which, unfortunately, the ecclesial community is not immune-, the commitment to communication “with open arms and hearts” does not concern exclusively information professionals, but which is everyone’s responsibility. We are all called to seek and tell the truth, and to do it with charity.
Christians, in particular, are continually exhorted to guard the tongue from evil (cf. Ps 34:14), since, as Scripture teaches, with our tongue we can bless the Lord and curse men created in the likeness of God (cf. Jas 3.9). Bad words should not come out of our mouths, but rather good words “that are uplifting when necessary and do good to those who hear them” (Eph 4,29).
Sometimes speaking kindly drives a wedge into even the hardest of hearts. We have proof of this in the literature. I think of that memorable page from chapter XXI of The Boyfriends , in which Lucía speaks from her heart de ella to the Unnamed until he, disarmed and tormented by a beneficent internal crisis, gives in to the gentle force of love. We experience it in civic coexistence, in which kindness is not just a matter of good manners but a true antidote to cruelty that can unfortunately poison hearts and intoxicate relationships.
We need it in the field of the media so that communication does not foster rancor that exasperates, generates anger and leads to confrontation, but rather helps people to reflect calmly, to decipher, with a critical spirit and always respectful, the reality in the one they live
Heart-to-heart communication: “It is enough to love well to say well”
One of the most luminous and, even today, fascinating examples of “speaking with the heart” is represented by Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church, to whom I recently dedicated the Apostolic Letter Totum amoris est , on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his death. Along with this important anniversary, I like to remember, in this circumstance, another that is celebrated in this year 2023: the centenary of the proclamation of him as patron of Catholic journalists by Pius XI with the Encyclical Rerum omnium perturbationem . Brilliant intellect, prolific writer, profound theologian, Francis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva at the beginning of the s. XVII, in difficult years, marked by heated disputes with the Calvinists.His peaceful attitude, his humanity, his willingness to patiently dialogue with everyone, especially those who contradicted him, made him an extraordinary witness of God’s merciful love.
Of him it could be said that “sweet words multiply friends and kind language favors good relationships” (Si 6,5). For the rest, one of his most famous affirmations of him, “the heart speaks to the heart”, has inspired generations of faithful, including Saint John Henry Newman, who chose it as his motto of him, Cor ad cor loquitur . “It is enough to love well to say well” was one of his convictions.
This shows that for him communication should never be reduced to an artifice -to a marketing strategy , we would say today-, but rather it had to be the reflection of the spirit, the visible surface of a nucleus of love invisible to the eyes. For Saint Francis de Sales, it is precisely “in the heart and through the heart that this subtle and intense unitary process by virtue of which man recognizes God takes place.” “Loving well”, San Francisco managed to communicate with the deaf Martino, becoming his friend; that is why he is remembered as the protector of people with communication disabilities.
Starting from this “criterion of love”, and through his writings and the testimony of his life, the holy Bishop of Geneva reminds us that “we are what we communicate”. A lesson that goes against the grain today, at a time when, as we experience especially in social networks, communication is often instrumentalized, so that the world sees us as we would like to be and not as we are. Saint Francis de Sales distributed numerous copies of his writings in the Genevan community. This “journalistic” intuition earned him a reputation that quickly exceeded the perimeter of his diocese and that continues to this day. His writings, Saint Paul VI observed, give rise to “extremely pleasant, instructive, and stimulating” reading. If we look at the panorama of current communication, Aren’t these characteristics precisely what an article, a report, a radio-television service or a post on social networks should have? May communication professionals feel inspired by this saint of tenderness, seeking and telling the truth with courage and freedom, but rejecting the temptation to use flashy and aggressive expressions.
Speaking from the Heart in the Synodal Process
As I have been able to underline, “also in the Church there is a great need to listen and to listen to ourselves. It is the most precious and generative gift that we can offer to each other”. From listening without prejudice, attentive and available, a speech according to God’s style is born, which is nourished by closeness, compassion and tenderness.
In the Church we urgently need a communication that ignites hearts, that is balm on wounds and illuminates the path of brothers and sisters. I dream of an ecclesial communication that knows how to let itself be guided by the Holy Spirit, kind and, at the same time, prophetic; May she know how to find new ways and modalities for the marvelous proclamation that she is called to give in the third millennium. A communication that puts the relationship with God and with our neighbor at the center, especially with those most in need, and that knows how to ignite the fire of faith instead of preserving the ashes of a self-referential identity.
A communication whose bases are humility in listening and parrhesia in speaking; never separate truth from charity.
Disarm Spirits by Promoting a Language of Peace
“A soft tongue breaks even a bone,” says the book of Proverbs (25.15). Speaking from the heart is very necessary today to promote a culture of peace where there is war; to open paths that allow dialogue and reconciliation where hated and enmity wreak havoc.
In the dramatic context of the global conflict that we are experiencing, it is urgent to affirm a non-hostile communication. It is necessary to overcome “the habit of quickly discrediting the adversary by applying humiliating epithets, instead of facing an open and respectful dialogue.”
We need communicators willing to dialogue, committed to promoting comprehensive disarmament and who strive to dismantle the war psychosis that nests in our hearts; As Saint John XXIII prophetically exhorted in the Encyclical Pace in Terris , “true peace can only be based on mutual trust”. A confidence that needs communicators who are not self-absorbed, but bold and creative, willing to take risks to find common ground to meet. Like sixty years ago, we are living in a dark hour in which humanity fears an escalation of warfare that must be stopped as soon as possible, also at the communication level.
One is horrified to hear how easily words calling for the destruction of peoples and territories are uttered. Words that, unfortunately, often turn into military actions of cruel violence. This is why all warmongering rhetoric must be rejected, as well as any form of propaganda that manipulates the truth, disfiguring it for ideological reasons. Instead, communication should be promoted at all levels that helps create the conditions to resolve disputes between people.
As Christians, we know that it is precisely the conversion of the heart that decides the fate of peace, since the virus of war comes from within the human heart. Words capable of dispelling the shadows of a closed and divided world spring from the heart, to build a better civilization than the one we have received. It is an effort that is required of each one of us, but that especially appeals to the sense of responsibility of communication operators, so that they develop their profession as a mission.
May the Lord Jesus, pure Word that rises from the heart of the Father, help us to make our communication free, clean and cordial.
May the Lord Jesus, Word made flesh, help us to listen to the beating of hearts, to rediscover ourselves as brothers and sisters, and to disarm the hostility that divides us.
May the Lord Jesus, Word of truth and love, help us to speak the truth in charity, to feel that we are custodians of one another.