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Message of the Holy Father for the 55th World
Communications Day, 23.01.2021
The following is the Message of the Holy Father
Francis for the 55th World Communications Day,
which will be held this year, in many countries,
on 16 May, Solemnity of the Ascension of the
Lord:
Message of the Holy Father
Come and See” (Jn 1:46) Communicating by
Encountering People as They Are
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The invitation to “come and see”, which was part
of those first moving encounters of Jesus with
the disciples, is also the method for all
authentic human communication.In order to tell
the truth of life that becomes history (cf. Message
for the 54thWorld Communications Day,
24 January 2020), it is necessary to move beyond
the complacent attitude that we “already know”
certain things.Instead, we need to go and see
them for ourselves, to spend time with people,
to listen to their stories and to confront
reality, which always in some way surprises
us.“Open your eyes with wonder to what you see,
let your hands touch the freshness and vitality
of things, so that when others read what you
write, they too can touch first-hand the vibrant
miracle of life”. This was the advice that
Blessed Manuel Lozano Garrido[1] offered
to his fellow journalists.This year, then, I
would like to devote this Message to the
invitation to “come and see”, which can serve as
an inspiration for all communication that
strives to be clear and honest, in the press, on
the internet, in the Church’s daily preaching
and in political or social communication.“Come
and see!”This has always been the way that the
Christian faith has been communicated, from the
time of those first encounters on the banks of
the River Jordan and on the Sea of Galilee.
Hitting the streets
Let us look first at the great issue of news
reporting.Insightful voices have long expressed
concern about the risk that original
investigative reporting in newspapers and
television, radio and web newscasts is being
replaced by a reportage that adheres to a
standard, often tendentious narrative.This
approach is less and less capable of grasping
the truth of things and the concrete lives of
people, much less the more serious social
phenomena or positive movements at the grass
roots level.The crisis of the publishing
industry risks leading to a reportage created in
newsrooms, in front of personal or company
computers and on social networks, without ever
“hitting the streets”, meeting people face to
face to research stories or to verify certain
situations first hand.Unless we open ourselves
to this kind of encounter, we remain mere
spectators, for all the technical innovations
that enable us to feel immersed in a larger and
more immediate reality.Any instrument proves
useful and valuable only to the extent that it
motivates us to go out and see things that
otherwise we would not know about, to post on
the internet news that would not be available
elsewhere, to allow for encounters that
otherwise would never happen.
The Gospels as news stories
“Come and see” were the first words that Jesus
spoke to the disciples who were curious about
him following his baptism in the Jordan river (Jn 1:39).He
invited them to enter into a relationship with
him.More than half a century later, when John,
now an old man, wrote his Gospel, he recalled
several “newsworthy” details that reveal that he
was personally present at the events he reports
and demonstrate the impact that the experience
had on his life.“It was about the tenth hour”,
he noted, that is, about four in the afternoon
(cf. v. 39).The next day – John also tells us –
Philip told Nathaniel about his encounter with
the Messiah.His friend is sceptical and asks:
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”Philip
does not try to win him over with good reasons,
but simply tells him: “Come and see” (cf. vv.
45-46).Nathaniel did go and see, and from that
moment his life was changed.That is how
Christian faith begins, and how it is
communicated: as direct knowledge, born of
experience, and not of hearsay.“It is no longer
because of your words that we believe, for we
have heard for ourselves”.So the townspeople
told the Samaritan woman, after Jesus stayed in
their village (cf. Jn 4:39-42).“Come and
see” is the simplest method to get to know a
situation.It is the most honest test of every
message, because, in order to know, we need to
encounter, to let the person in front of me
speak, to let his or her testimony reach me.
Thanks to the courage of many journalists
Journalism too, as an account of reality, calls
for an ability to go where no one else thinks of
going: a readiness to set out and a desire to
see.Curiosity, openness, passion.We owe a word
of gratitude for the courage and commitment of
all those professionals – journalists, camera
operators, editors, directors – who often risk
their lives in carrying out their work.Thanks to
their efforts, we now know, for example, about
the hardships endured by persecuted minorities
in various parts of the world, numerous cases of
oppression and injustice inflicted on the poor
and on the environment, and many wars that
otherwise would be overlooked.It would be a loss
not only for news reporting, but for society and
for democracy as a whole, were those voices to
fade away.Our entire human family would be
impoverished.
Many situations in our world, even more so in
this time of pandemic, are inviting the
communications media to “come and see”.We can
risk reporting the pandemic, and indeed every
crisis, only through the lens of the richer
nations, of “keeping two sets of books”.For
example, there is the question of vaccines, and
medical care in general, which risks excluding
the poorer peoples.Who would keep us informed
about the long wait for treatment in the
poverty-stricken villages of Asia, Latin America
and Africa?Social and economic differences on
the global level risk dictating the order of
distribution of anti-Covid vaccines, with the
poor always at the end of the line and the right
to universal health care affirmed in principle,
but stripped of real effect. Yet even in the
world of the more fortunate, the social tragedy
of families rapidly slipping into poverty
remains largely hidden; people who are no longer
ashamed to wait in line before charitable
organizations in order to receive a package of
provisions do not tend to make news.
Opportunities and hidden dangers on the web
The internet, with its countless social media
expressions, can increase the capacity for
reporting and sharing, with many more eyes on
the world and a constant flood of images and
testimonies.Digital technology gives us the
possibility of timely first-hand information
that is often quite useful.We can think of
certain emergency situations where the internet
was the first to report the news and communicate
official notices.It is a powerful tool, which
demands that all of us be responsible as users
and consumers.Potentially we can all become
witnesses to events that otherwise would be
overlooked by the traditional media, offer a
contribution to society and highlight more
stories, including positive ones.Thanks to the
internet we have the opportunity to report what
we see, what is taking place before our eyes,
and to share it with others.
At the same time, the risk of misinformation
being spread on social media has become evident
to everyone.We have known for some time that
news and even images can be easily manipulated,
for any number of reasons, at times simply for
sheer narcissism.Being critical in this regard
is not about demonizing the internet, but is
rather an incentive to greater discernment and
responsibility for contents both sent and
received.All of us are responsible for the
communications we make, for the information we
share, for the control that we can exert over
fake news by exposing it.All of us are to be
witnesses of the truth: to go, to see and to
share.
Nothing replaces seeing things at first hand
In communications, nothing can ever completely
replace seeing things in person.Some things can
only be learned through first-hand experience.We
do not communicate merely with words, but with
our eyes, the tone of our voice and our
gestures.Jesus’ attractiveness to those who met
him depended on the truth of his preaching; yet
the effectiveness of what he said was
inseparable from how he looked at others, from
how he acted towards them, and even from his
silence.The disciples not only listened to his
words; they watched him speak.Indeed in him –
the incarnate Logos – the Word took on a
face; the invisible God let himself be seen,
heard and touched, as John himself tells us
(cf. 1 Jn 1:1-3).The word is effective
only if it is “seen”, only if it engages us in
experience, in dialogue.For this reason, the
invitation to “come and see” was, and continues
to be, essential.
We think of how much empty rhetoric abounds,
even in our time, in all areas of public life,
in business as well as politics.This or that one
“speaks an infinite deal of nothing... His
reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two
bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you
find them, and when you have them, they are not
worth the search.[2]The
blistering words of the English playwright also
apply to us as Christian communicators.The Good
News of the Gospel spread throughout the world
as a result of person-to-person, heart-to-heart
encounters with men and women who accepted the
invitation to “come and see”, and were struck by
the “surplus” of humanity that shone through the
gaze, the speech and the gestures of those who
bore witness to Jesus Christ.Every tool has its
value, and that great communicator who was Paul
of Tarsus would certainly have made use of email
and social messaging.Yet it was his faith, hope
and charity that impressed those of his
contemporaries who heard him preach or had the
good fortune to spend time with him, to see him
during an assembly or in individual
conversation.Watching him in action wherever he
was, they saw for themselves how true and
fruitful for their lives was the message of
salvation that, by God’s grace, he had come to
preach.Even where this servant of God could not
be encountered personally, the disciples whom he
sent bore witness to his way of life in Christ
(cf. 1 Cor 4:17).
“We have books in our hands, but the facts
before our eyes”, said Saint Augustine[3] in
speaking of fulfilment of the prophecies found
in sacred Scripture.So too, the Gospel comes
alive in our own day, whenever we accept the
compelling witness of people whose lives have
been changed by their encounter with Jesus. For
two millennia, a chain of such encounters has
communicated the attractiveness of the Christian
adventure. The challenge that awaits us, then,
is to communicate by encountering people, where
they are and as they are.
Lord, teach us to move beyond ourselves,
and to set out in search of truth.
Teach us to go out and see,
teach us to listen,
not to entertain prejudices
or draw hasty conclusions.
Teach us to go where no one else will go,
to take the time needed to understand,
to pay attention to the essentials,
not to be distracted by the superfluous,
to distinguish deceptive appearances from the
truth.
Grant us the grace to recognize your dwelling
places in our world
and the honesty needed to tell others what we
have seen.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 23 January 2021, Vigil
of the Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales
FRANCISCUS
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[1] Spanish
journalist (1920-1971), beatified in 2010.
[2] WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Merchant
of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1.
[3] Sermo 360/B, 20.
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