Pope to TV 2000: courageous frankness in truth-telling
(Vatican Radio) Catholic communication as courageous truth-telling that opens channels of dialogue and speaks to the whole person: this was the three-fold theme of Pope Francis’ remarks to the management, journalists and technical staff of TV 2000 – the television broadcaster of the Italian Bishops’ Conference – on Monday, during a special audience for them in Paul VI Hall.
“Catholic media,” said the Holy Father in remarks prepared for the occasion, “have an extremely challenging mission as regards social communication: that of seeking to safeguard communication from everything that deforms it and bends it to other ends.” Pope Francis went on to say that courageous frankness and freedom are the characteristics of the authentic communicator, and of Catholic communications especially.
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The Holy Father also spoke of the duty all communicators have to do justice to the complexities of real life, without losing sight of the truth that is the object of authentic dialogue. “To open, and not to close,” channels of dialogue, said Pope Francis, “is the second task of the communicator.”
Finally, the Pope focused on the need to avoid both sensationalism and platitudes in reporting stories, and the need to cultivate an integral approach to interpersonal communication. “It is necessary to speak to people in their entirety,” he said, “to their mind and to their heart, so that they might be able to see beyond the immediate, beyond a present that is at risk of being amnesiac and fearful of the future.”