Jubilee of Communicators: Pope Francis asks journalists to be truthful

Pope Francis asked journalists to “be true” not only in the stories they tell, but also in their ordinary lives, when improvising a few words before the more than 6,000 people of this profession who gathered in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican on the occasion of the Jubilee of Communicators.

The Pontiff – who arrived in a wheelchair at the Paul VI Hall and was received with great applause – had prepared a speech, but preferred not to read it. “I have a 9-page speech in my hands. At this hour, with an upset stomach, reading a nine-page speech would be torture,” he excused himself with a joke that drew laughter from those present.

After delivering it for publication, as confirmed by the Vatican Press Office, he improvised a few brief words in which he said that “communication is getting out of yourself a little to give dignity to the other.” “Communication is the encounter with the other,” he noted.

Thus, he asked the informants to be authentic, but “not only saying true things, but also within you in your life.” And he invited us to ask ourselves: “Are you true?”

In this sense, the Holy Father praised the work of journalists as a work that “builds society” and “the Church.” “Send everyone forward,” he stressed.

Pope Francis reminded journalists who “sacrificed their lives” in 2024

In the text he had originally prepared for this occasion, the Pope noted that the Jubilee is celebrated “at a difficult moment in the history of humanity, with the world still wounded by wars and violence, by the shedding of so much innocent blood. . “That’s why I first want to thank all the media workers who risk their lives to seek the truth and tell the horrors of war.”

This is how he wanted to remember “all those who sacrificed their lives in this last year, one of the deadliest for journalists.”

At another point in the prepared speech he also cited “all those who are imprisoned simply for having been faithful to the profession of journalist.”

“There are many! But in this Holy Year, in this jubilee of the world of communication, I ask those who have the power to do so so that all journalists unjustly imprisoned are freed. That a door be opened for them too through which they can return to freedom, because the freedom of journalists increases the freedom of all of us,” he added.

10,000 communicators crossed the Holy Door

The day on January 25 began in the Vatican when several thousand journalists and communicators from all over the world walked the Via della Conciliazione on a pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

According to organizers, some 10,000 journalists passed through the Holy Door during the Jubilee of Communicators, the first major event of the 36 planned for this Holy Year.

The journalists waited for the opening of the Holy Door from the early hours of this Saturday morning in order to receive the plenary indulgence.

The Jubilee of Communicators began this Friday in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran with a Mass on the occasion of the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists, presided over by Cardinal Baldo Reina, vicar general of the Pope for the Diocese of Rome.

Before the Pope arrived at the Paul VI Hall, where hundreds of journalists were waiting for him, two prominent communicators took the floor: the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Filipino Maria Ressa, co-founder of the digital media Rappler; and Irish literary fiction writer and president of Narrative 4, Colum McCann.

Ressa, who for years was a harsh critic of the anti-drug strategy of Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines between 2016 and 2022, highlighted the dangers of technology in the manipulation of information, comparing it to an “atomic bomb” in the information ecosystem.

He denounced how social networks have encouraged hatred, misinformation and division, eroding democracy, truth and trust.

In addition, he criticized Big Tech’s business model, based on the exploitation of human vulnerabilities for profit, and pointed out its global impact in strengthening authoritarianism and polarization.

For his part, McCann reflected on the need to repair a broken world through storytelling and active listening. According to McCann, the key to overcoming these challenges lies in telling and listening to stories.