Carmelite Communications Directors Join Jubilee Year Celebration of World Communications
The Vatican’s first celebration of the Jubilee Year, January 24-26, was dedicated to World Communications. The celebration began, appropriately, on the feast of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists and writers, with a penitential liturgy at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
On the following morning, January 25, participating journalists and directors of communications assembled at the end of Via Conciliazione to begin a pilgrimage to the Holy Door. The Vatican offered a small snack and coffee before heading into the Paul VI Audience Hall for an audience with Pope Francis.
The papal audience was preceded by a round table session with two well-known personalities: Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, advocate for freedom of expression, and CEO of the social communications platform Rappler and Colum McCann, author and co-founder of Narrative 4 – a global non-profit which uses storytelling to better communities.
Ressa spoke of her reason for attending the Jubilee dedicated to communications. She saw the event as an opportunity “to talk to real people in a shared reality with values that we hold dear.” While we live in an ever-increasing technology-driven world, Ressa feels “both social media influencers and media professionals have a role to play in being sources of communication. Journalists should “operate under standards and ethics”; whereas influencers are good at translation or repackaging information for different audiences.
For McCann, the Jubilee of World Communication is important because telling stories is a tool for bringing people together. “The shortest distance between any people is a story,” McCann explained, “so our ability to tell our story and our ability to listen to somebody else's story is actually paramount to who we are and how we continue.” In his talk, McCann provided concrete examples where the work of Narrative 4 has brought about incredible results. He holds that “the ability to understand somebody else's story” that is “fundamental to notions of democracy and belonging.”
This part of the program concluded with a musical performance by Maestro Uto Ughi, with the orchestra promoted by the Uto Ughi Foundation.
Unfortunately, Pope Francis’ participation was limited. He gave his prepared text to an aide saying he would have the document distributed but only speak briefly because everyone was hungry. Following his remarks, he moved on to greeting the cardinals and bishops as well as those who managed to get a front row seat. His impromptu remarks as well as the prepared remarks were later published and can be found here.
The afternoon of Saturday was spent with the initiative Dialogue with the City: Meetings of a Cultural and Spiritual Nature. The meetings were organized by various institutions to explore the relationship between communication and the Church. A full list of these sessions and their locations can be found here
Sunday morning the Jubilee celebration of World Communications concluded with the Sunday of the Word of God in St. Peter’s Basilica presided over by Pope Francis. During the Mass people from various countries participated in the the Institution of Lectors. The homily of the Holy Father is here.
