The Vatican announced that the message of Pope Francis for the 56th World Communications Day will be focused on listening. The commemoration instituted by the Catholic Church takes place every year in the month of May and has as its axis a message from the pontiff.
In this way and after the 2021 message, focused on going and seeing, now the Pope asks the world of communication to learn to listen again. “The search for the truth begins with listening” can be read in the note issued by the press office of the Holy See, which adds that “the pandemic has hit and hurt everyone and everyone needs to be heard and consoled.”
Anticipating what will be the Pope’s message, the text of which will be known by the end of the year, the Vatican statement maintains that “listening is also essential for good information” So what “every dialogue, every relationship begins with listening”.
In the same vein, adds the note from the Vatican press office, “therefore, to grow, even professionally, as communicators, we have to relearn how to listen a lot”.
Remember also that “Jesus himself asks us to pay attention to how we listen” and that “in order to really listen, courage is needed, a free and open heart, without prejudice”.
In addition to being a proposal for reflection for society and, in particular, for the professional world of communication, the papal message also has significance within the Catholic Church itself, where Francis is promoting a perspective of “synodal church” understood as a instance of greater participation from all areas of the parishion, being central the issue of listening. Consequently, the pontifical message is also framed in the perspective of the world synod scheduled for 2023 in which, as announced, participation will be expanded to lay people, men and women religious, so that it is not only reduced to bishops. It is the same modality that the Pope promotes for the call Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America that will take place this year.
The World Day of Social Communications was created by the Vatican Council in the decree “Inter Mirifica “ , on social media. Every year it is commemorated in the religious feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which will be celebrated next year on May 26.
In 2021, under the motto “Come and look”, Francisco’s invitation to professionals in the field of communication was to move impelled by the ethical-professional duty, going in person to the scene to report on the events in person. “Communicate by finding people where they are and how they are” Jorge Bergoglio asked on that occasion.
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