The hope and grace that come from taking part in a Jubilee celebration is not a personal privilege, but must communicated and shared with others, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the chief Vatican organizer of the Holy Year 2025.
"This is why the first big event (after the start of the Holy Year) is with the world of communications," he told reporters during a briefing marking the start of the three-day Jubilee of the World of Communications.
If people are able to experience the jubilee and its events firsthand, "well, then they are also able to recount it, to share, to talk about it with others. This is what we are hoping for," he said Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists.
About 10,000 people from 138 countries signed up to take part in the events Jan. 24-26 in Rome for the special jubilee for writers, communicators and those working in media.
Maria Ressa, a Filipino and U.S. journalist, told reporters that a jubilee, which is only celebrated once every 25 years, is "so extremely needed in our world today."
"It feels like the right time to come together and go back to our values, a period of grace, remember the good, and then gain strength and courage and hope from that. That's why I'm here," said Ressa, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with a Russian journalist for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.
Even though only 25 years have elapsed since the last Jubilee for communicators in 2000, it feels like a century for how much the world of communication has changed, Archbishop Fisichella said.
"Today we are in a situation in which we have a culture of 'right now,' everything today and immediately, which is not always positive because it impedes reflection" and consistency, he said.
When asked how journalists are supposed to be better at telling stories of hope without ignoring important news, too, the archbishop said, "even bad news must be full of hope, otherwise we fall into desperation."
For a person of faith, he said, everything is filled with hope, starting with waking up in the morning, "the first thing that accompanies us is hope."
Colum McCann, an Irish writer and author of seven novels, said, "I believe what we do is at the forefront of our ability to at least give meaning if not hope," which possesses a particular power.
"Samuel Beckett, the Irish playwright said, 'Can't go on, must go on.' And that feels like some of the atmosphere that we're in at this particular moment. The idea that we must tell one of those stories" that give meaning or hope, he said.
People connect and understand one another through stories and storytelling, "not didactic ideas that are pushed down," McCann said. And "if we don't understand one another, we're doomed,"
Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, said communicating based on hope means building a relationship with readers or viewers and fostering relationships between others.
Hope is a call to action, a call to build a bridge and communicate better, especially stories of hope, which is why the dicastery was launching the hashtag #HopeTelling.
"It doesn't mean not seeing the evil that exists, but hoping that things can change," he said.
Pope to media: Share hope, build community, shun aggressiveness
Pope Francis urged communicators to use their platforms to inspire hope by avoiding aggressive language and rejecting rhetoric that dehumanizes others.
"I dream of a communication capable of making us fellow travelers, walking alongside our brothers and sisters and encouraging them to hope in these troubled times," the pope wrote in his message for the World Day of Communications.
The pope's message was released Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists, and the start of the Vatican celebration of the Jubilee of the World of Communications.
The Vatican and most dioceses will celebrate the World Day of Communications June 1, the Sunday before Pentecost.
Describing his dream particularly for Catholic communicators, Pope Francis said theirs should be "a communication capable of speaking to the heart, arousing not passionate reactions of defensiveness and anger, but attitudes of openness and friendship."
And with the Holy Year 2025 being focused on hope, the pope said communications should be "capable of focusing on beauty and hope even in the midst of apparently desperate situations, and generating commitment, empathy and concern for others."
A Christian form of communication, he said, "does not peddle illusions or fears, but is able to give reasons for hope."
The theme for the church's 59th celebration of World Day of Communications is "Share with gentleness the hope that is in your hearts," taken from the First Letter of St. Peter.
Pope Francis wrote that he chose the theme because modern communication is increasingly "characterized by disinformation and polarization, as a few centers of power control an unprecedented mass of data and information."
"Too often today communication generates not hope, but fear and despair, prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred," he wrote in the message. "All too often it simplifies reality in order to provoke instinctive reactions; it uses words like a razor; it even uses false or artfully distorted information to send messages designed to agitate, provoke or hurt."
In his letter, the apostle Peter tells Christians that they have an obligation to give others an account of their hope, something which the pope said is accomplished best when Christians allow "the beauty of love" to shine through their words and actions.
Pope Francis asked Catholic communicators "to discover and make known the many stories of goodness hidden in the folds of the news, imitating those gold prospectors who tirelessly sift the sand in search of a tiny nugget."
Seeking out those "seeds of hope" and sharing them, he said, "helps our world to be a little less deaf to the cry of the poor, a little less indifferent, a little less closed in on itself."
"Be witnesses and promoters of a nonaggressive communication; help to spread a culture of care, build bridges and break down the visible and invisible barriers of the present time," the pope asked Catholic media professionals.
"May you always find those glimmers of goodness that inspire us to hope," he told them. "This kind of communication can help to build communion, to make us feel less alone, to rediscover the importance of walking together."
