On the road, among priests, Pope and Jubilee

  

On the road, among priests, Pope and Jubilee

 

I am in Rome, in the midst of a long and challenging journey.

I left Tuesday, January 14, from Bangui. After a stopover in Ethiopia, on Wednesday morning I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. Here I met with friends from the Aid to the Church in Need Foundation, which supports various projects in Central Africa and all dioceses around the world. It is a Foundation born from the intuition of a Dutch priest, who after World War II wanted to help churches in Germany (destroyed by the war) and Eastern countries, involving Christians, including and especially those who had suffered damage and violence from the Nazi occupation, thus creating a path of reconciliation and hope.

In the evening I continue on to Prague, where I spend 2 days visiting the brethren, Carmelite nuns and friends of the NGO SIRIRI.ORG, which has been working in Central Africa for years, supporting excellent educational projects in particular.

On the 18th, Saturday morning, I land in Paris. It is very cold ... but there is one fact (indeed many) that warms my heart: at 12 noon I celebrate Mass at Notre Dame, the Paris cathedral recently reopened after the fire that had threatened to destroy it. While tourists circulate in the basilica, the nave is full of people, participating intensely in the liturgy: as I distribute communion, I see faces full of joy!

I am in France until Friday to meet with priests from the Diocese of Bangassou who study and work in France. I meet them all, in Paris, Versailles, Rennes. These are intense days, and I am happy to meet them, and see how they work and how much they are appreciated by the people and the bishops who welcome them.

It is a new world that I discover, where the Church is more and more a family, where we meet and can help each other, and this happens in the two directions: for the Church that welcomes and for the Church that sends.

On Friday morning I leave for Rome, which is the other main purpose of my trip: I am here for the Jubilee of the World of Communication.

There are many of us, including journalists, heads of Media Commissions from dioceses and from 138 countries around the world. There are moments of prayer, the pilgrimage and the passing of the Holy Door, meetings among us, with very interesting personalities (Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, Colum McCann, journalist Mario Calabresi, Fr. Paolo Benanti and many others...). And we meet Pope Francis several times and celebrate with him the Mass on Sunday the 26th, in which we celebrate the Sunday of the Word. And he says these fantastic words, "evil's days are numbered, because the future belongs to God".

This morning at 8 o'clock we met with him, and he gave us the gift of a very beautiful speech: and I leave a piece of it here

These are days when we want to let Hope fill our hearts, and especially to fill our lives as communicators, making the world a little more beautiful and a little more peaceful.

 

Speech by Pope Francis

Let us ask ourselves: what do we do to sow hope in the midst of all the despair that surrounds and challenges us? What do we do to overcome the virus of division that undermines our communities? Is our communication inspired by prayer? Or do we limit ourselves to communicating about the Church by merely following the rules laid down by corporate marketing?

Are we witnessing to the fact that human history is not tied to an inexorable destiny? What are we doing to encourage others to look forward to a future that is not predetermined? I like the expression “writing the future”. It is up to us to write the future. Are we capable of communicating that hope is not an illusion? Hope never disappoints. But are we communicating that? Are we capable of communicating that it is possible to improve the lives of those around us, and that we can play a part? Can I, for my part, bring beauty to the lives of others? Are we able to communicate and convince others that it is possible to forgive? This is very hard to do!

Christian communication is about showing that the kingdom of God is near. It is present here and now, like a miracle that can be experienced by every person and by every culture. A miracle that must be narrated by offering the hermeneutic necessary to look beyond the mundane, beyond evil, beyond prejudices, beyond stereotypes, beyond oneself. The kingdom of God is beyond us. The kingdom of God even comes through our imperfections and this is beautiful. The kingdom of God comes when we show attention to others and carefully analyse the world around us. It comes in the ability to recognize and spread the hope that goodness exists, overcoming a desperate fanaticism.

This may be an institutional service for you, but it is also the vocation of every Christian, of every baptised person. Every Christian is called to recognize and pass on the stories of good that bad journalism tries to erase by only focusing on evil. Evil exists. It must not be hidden, but it should stir us and lead us to produce questions and answers. This is why your task is so important: it demands that you step out of yourself, to dedicate yourself to a “symphonic” work that involves everyone, that values old and young, women and men and takes into account every language, through the use of words, art, music, painting and images. We are all asked to examine how and what we are communicating. Communicate, we must always communicate.