How to communicate with hope in today’s Europe? Only God is the answer

How to communicate with hope in today’s Europe? To this question they wanted to answer a group of ecclesial communicators and journalists during a meeting organized by the European Episcopal Conference Council (CCEE).

Each year, the CCEE quotes in a European city different from the press managers from all over Europe. The host city of this XXV Encuentro, held from June 3 to 5, was Prague (Czech Republic).

Within the framework of the Jubileo de la Esperanza, various experts from 18 countries in the European Union gathered to reflect on communication that “makes sense” to people’s lives, that is, that which speaks of God.

Daniel Arasa, Consultant of the Dicasterio for Communication and Dean of the Faculty of Institutional Social Communication of the Pontifical University of the Santa Cruz in Rome, inaugurated the meeting with a presentation entitled “The service of ecclesial communicators to the Church in the current context.”

In conversation with ACI Press, Arasa addressed one of the main problems facing institutional communicators: the lack of confidence in institutions. Therefore, he highlighted the importance of a renovation focused on three lines of action.

A “cultural reforestation”

First, he pointed out the so -called “cultural reforestation”, a metaphor that underlines the urgency of “planting” new values ​​in society “that make meaning and unity to coexistence.”

He said that these values ​​have been eradicated not only by religious ignorance and de -Christianization, but has been a process initiated in the 60s “with gender theories, radical feminism, exacerbation of individualism and relativism.”

A series of phenomena, explained Arasa, that “concepts such as men, women, family, love or donation have emptied anthropological content, and that until recently they were shared throughout the world and allowed a dialogue and social coexistence. It has now emptied content.”

When these “trees,” added the communication expert, “the mountain collapses.” Therefore, he insisted on the responsibility of the ecclesial communicators of “culturally reforesting society”, a term coined by one of the professors of the University of Opus Dei in Rome.

Give hope despite the bad news

In his presentation he also insisted on the need to encourage creativity in communication, as well as “generate empathy.”

Finally, he cited four qualities that a communicator of the religious sphere must have: “Desire for permanent formation, service, unity to the Holy Father, good humor and joy.”

Faced with wars or secularization in Europe, he said that giving hope is not to communicate only good news, but “to be able to talk about negative things in a context of faith, that is, of hope.”

He also stressed that people “wish to listen to stories”, so you have to present institutions through a history, not the institution itself.

The beauty and joy that fills the life of meaning

The Italian Alessandro Gisotti, deputy director of the Editorial Department of the Dicastery for Communication and former Vatican spokesman during the pontificate of Pope Francis, reflected on the theme “The communication of Pope Francis to Pope León”, highlighting that, to understand Pope León, “you have to meet St. Augustine.”

The last session addressed the theme “The journalist and the Vatican communication”, with the interventions Javier Martínez Brocal, Vaticanist and correspondent of the Spanish newspaper ABC and D. Josef Pazderka, editor chief of český Rozhlas Plus, the radio radio station.

Brocal pointed out that those people who have lost the meaning of life or who are hopeless find that response in the church, although they are not looking directly.

Arasa seconded the words of Martínez-Brocal, stressing that “the Church is one of the few, but the only institution, which can make sense of many of those questions.” In this regard, he stressed that the same people who tend to “orientalism, mindfulnessetc., during the conclave they were very aware of what was happening. ”

“The same beauty of rites, prayers, the feeling of joy that was breathed in people, in the squares … Those are things that show that there is a spiritual dimension behind, it is what really fills people meaningless,” he added.

In this context, he recalled that Leo XIV intends to “recover the primacy of Christ”, an issue in which Francisco also insisted. “People need answers and only God is the answer, and we don’t have to be afraid of presenting it in a very positive, not taxation. It is about giving a message of joy,” said Arasa.

Life and coherence testimony

Finally, he insisted on the importance of coherence: “We cannot talk about Christ and present Christ, without testimony with our life. Everything we say has to have that sense of evangelizer, something that the Pope is constantly remembering.”

During the meeting there were also various cultural activities, with a mass in the chapel of San Wenceslao of the cathedral of Prague, chaired by Mons. Josef Nuzík, president of the Czech Episcopal Conference.