Vatican City, 23 January 2015 (VIS) –
The Pope's message for the 49th annual World Communications Day was
published today, the vigil of the feast day of St. Francis de Sales,
patron saint of journalists. The Day will be celebrated on Sunday 17
May 2015, and this year's theme is “Communicating the family: a
privileged place of encounter with the gift of love”. The message
was published in English, French ,German, Portuguese and Spanish.
The full text of the message is
reproduced below:
“The family is a subject of profound
reflection by the Church and of a process involving two Synods: the
recent extraordinary assembly and the ordinary assembly scheduled for
next October. So I thought it appropriate that the theme for the next
World Communications Day should have the family as its point of
reference. After all, it is in the context of the family that we
first learn how to communicate. Focusing on this context can help to
make our communication more authentic and humane, while helping us to
view the family in a new perspective.
“We can draw inspiration from the
Gospel passage which relates the visit of Mary to Elizabeth. 'When
Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and
Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit cried out in a loud voice and
said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit
of your womb”'. This episode first shows us how communication is a
dialogue intertwined with the language of the body. The first
response to Mary’s greeting is given by the child, who leaps for
joy in the womb of Elizabeth. Joy at meeting others, which is
something we learn even before being born, is, in one sense, the
archetype and symbol of every other form of communication. The womb
which hosts us is the first 'school' of communication, a place of
listening and physical contact where we begin to familiarise
ourselves with the outside world within a protected environment, with
the reassuring sound of the mother’s heartbeat. This encounter
between two persons, so intimately related while still distinct from
each other, an encounter so full of promise, is our first experience
of communication. It is an experience which we all share, since each
of us was born of a mother.
“Even after we have come into the
world, in some sense we are still in a 'womb', which is the family. A
womb made up of various interrelated persons: the family is 'where we
learn to live with others despite our differences'. Notwithstanding
the differences of gender and age between them, family members accept
one another because there is a bond between them. The wider the range
of these relationships and the greater the differences of age, the
richer will be our living environment. It is this bond which is at
the root of language, which in turn strengthens the bond. We do not
create our language; we can use it because we have received it. It is
in the family that we learn to speak our 'mother tongue', the
language of those who have gone before us. In the family we realise
that others have preceded us, they made it possible for us to exist
and in our turn to generate life and to do something good and
beautiful. We can give because we have received. This virtuous circle
is at the heart of the family’s ability to communicate among its
members and with others. More generally, it is the model for all
communication.
“The experience of this relationship
which 'precedes' us enables the family to become the setting in which
the most basic form of communication, which is prayer, is handed
down. When parents put their newborn children to sleep, they
frequently entrust them to God, asking that he watch over them. When
the children are a little older, parents help them to recite some
simple prayers, thinking with affection of other people, such as
grandparents, relatives, the sick and suffering, and all those in
need of God’s help. It was in our families that the majority of us
learned the religious dimension of communication, which in the case
of Christianity is permeated with love, the love that God bestows
upon us and which we then offer to others.
“In the family, we learn to embrace
and support one another, to discern the meaning of facial expressions
and moments of silence, to laugh and cry together with people who did
not choose one other yet are so important to each other. This greatly
helps us to understand the meaning of communication as recognising
and creating closeness. When we lessen distances by growing closer
and accepting one another, we experience gratitude and joy. Mary’s
greeting and the stirring of her child are a blessing for Elizabeth;
they are followed by the beautiful canticle of the Magnificat, in
which Mary praises God’s loving plan for her and for her people. A
'yes' spoken with faith can have effects that go well beyond
ourselves and our place in the world. To 'visit' is to open doors,
not remaining closed in our little world, but rather going out to
others. So too the family comes alive as it reaches beyond itself;
families who do so communicate their message of life and communion,
giving comfort and hope to more fragile families, and thus build up
the Church herself, which is the family of families.
“More than anywhere else, the family
is where we daily experience our own limits and those of others, the
problems great and small entailed in living peacefully with others.
A perfect family does not exist. We should not be fearful of
imperfections, weakness or even conflict, but rather learn how to
deal with them constructively. The family, where we keep loving one
another despite our limits and sins, thus becomes a school of
forgiveness. Forgiveness is itself a process of communication. When
contrition is expressed and accepted, it becomes possible to restore
and rebuild the communication which broke down. A child who has
learned in the family to listen to others, to speak respectfully and
to express his or her view without negating that of others, will be a
force for dialogue and reconciliation in society.
“When it comes to the challenges of
communication, families who have children with one or more
disabilities have much to teach us. A motor, sensory or mental
limitation can be a reason for closing in on ourselves, but it can
also become, thanks to the love of parents, siblings, and friends, an
incentive to openness, sharing and ready communication with all. It
can also help schools, parishes and associations to become more
welcoming and inclusive of everyone.
“In a world where people often curse,
use foul language, speak badly of others, sow discord and poison our
human environment by gossip, the family can teach us to understand
communication as a blessing. In situations apparently dominated by
hatred and violence, where families are separated by stone walls or
the no less impenetrable walls of prejudice and resentment, where
there seem to be good reasons for saying 'enough is enough', it is
only by blessing rather than cursing, by visiting rather than
repelling, and by accepting rather than fighting, that we can break
the spiral of evil, show that goodness is always possible, and
educate our children to fellowship.
“Today the modern media, which are an
essential part of life for young people in particular, can be both a
help and a hindrance to communication in and between families. The
media can be a hindrance if they become a way to avoid listening to
others, to evade physical contact, to fill up every moment of silence
and rest, so that we forget that 'silence is an integral element of
communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist'.
The media can help communication when they enable people to share
their stories, to stay in contact with distant friends, to thank
others or to seek their forgiveness, and to open the door to new
encounters. By growing daily in our awareness of the vital importance
of encountering others, these 'new possibilities', we will employ
technology wisely, rather than letting ourselves be dominated by it.
Here too, parents are the primary educators, but they cannot be left
to their own devices. The Christian community is called to help them
in teaching children how to live in a media environment in a way
consonant with the dignity of the human person and service of the
common good.
“The great challenge facing us today
is to learn once again how to talk to one another, not simply how to
generate and consume information. The latter is a tendency which our
important and influential modern communications media can encourage.
Information is important, but it is not enough. All too often things
get simplified, different positions and viewpoints are pitted against
one another, and people are invited to take sides, rather than to see
things as a whole.
“The family, in conclusion, is not a
subject of debate or a terrain for ideological skirmishes. Rather, it
is an environment in which we learn to communicate in an experience
of closeness, a setting where communication takes place, a
'communicating community'. The family is a community which provides
help, which celebrates life and is fruitful. Once we realise this, we
will once more be able to see how the family continues to be a rich
human resource, as opposed to a problem or an institution in crisis.
At times the media can tend to present the family as a kind of
abstract model which has to be accepted or rejected, defended or
attacked, rather than as a living reality. Or else a grounds for
ideological clashes rather than as a setting where we can all learn
what it means to communicate in a love received and returned.
Relating our experiences means realising that our lives are bound
together as a single reality, that our voices are many, and that each
is unique.
“Families should be seen as a
resource rather than as a problem for society. Families at their best
actively communicate by their witness the beauty and the richness of
the relationship between man and woman, and between parents and
children. We are not fighting to defend the past. Rather, with
patience and trust, we are working to build a better future for the
world in which we live”.
