A long warm applause welcomes Pope Leone XIV At the hearing granted to journalists and media operators accredited to the Vatican to follow the funeral of Pope Francis and the conclave. Like its predecessors Ratzinger, in 2005, and Bergoglio, in 2013, also Devost dedicates the first “official” hearing of the pontificate to journalists. At the beginning of the speech he greets in English, he smiles for the applause received and jokes us on: «Thanks for this splendid welcome. It is said that when you applaud at the beginning, it doesn’t matter very much if you are still wake up in the end and you want to applaud. Thank you with all my heart”.
In the Nervi classroom there are about three thousand journalists, cameramen and photographers and their family members. Leone, in his short but incisive speech, invites everyone to “carrying on a different communication, which does not seek consensus at all costs, does not come of aggressive words, does not marry the model of the competition, nOn never separates the search for truth from the love with which we humbly have to look for it. ” He thanks all the journalists for the work done in this period “who is a time of grace for the Church”, invites them to become “peace operators” inviting them to look for the truth with love “with love” and saying “no” to the “war of words and images. We must reject the paradigm of war », he said. Then, citing the “speech of the mountain of Jesus”, he remembered that “peace begins with each of us: from the way we look at others, we listen to others, we speak of others; And, in this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance ».
Pope Leo’s first appeal is for the imprisoned reporters defined as “brave witnesses” who defend “lTo dignity, justice and the right of peoples to be informed, because only informed peoples can make free choices. The suffering of these imprisoned journalists “he added, “appeals the conscience of the nations and the international community, recalling all of us to keep the precious asset of freedom of expression and press. The Church recognizes in these witnesses – I think of those who tell war even at the cost of life – the courage of those who defend the dignity, justice and the right of peoples to be informed “.
Prevost has retraced the last few weeks, from the rites of the Holy Week and Easter to the death of Pope Francis, “which took place in the light of Easter”, to the “tiring days” of the conclave. In all these events, the Pontiff underlined, the communication operators are “You manage to narrate the beauty of the love of Christ who unites us all and makes us be a single people, guided by the good shepherd”.
The challenge, then, in “difficult times to go and tell”, is that of “never giving in to mediocrity”, leaving “from stereotypes and commonplaces” through which we tend to read the Christian life and the Church: “Today, one of the most important challenges is to promote a communication capable of letting us come out of the “tower of Babel” in which we sometimes find ourselves, from the confusion of languages without love, often ideological or partisan. Therefore, your service, with the words you use and the style you adopt, is important. Communication, in fact, is not only the transmission of information, but it is the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces of dialogue and comparison. And looking at technological evolution, this mission becomes even more necessary “the pontiff also reiterated the” immense potential “of artificial intelligence which, however, requires” responsibility and discernment “so that it is really for the benefit of all humanity.
Leone XIV then made Pope Francis’ appeal contained in the message for the next World Social Communications Day: «We disarm the communication from any prejudice, resentment, fanaticism and hatred; let’s purify it from aggression. There is no need to communicate, muscle, but rather a communication capable of listening, to collect the voice of the weak who have no voice. We disarm the words and we will help to disarm the earth ».
A “unarmed and disarming communication”, underlined the Pontiff, “It allows you to share a different look at the world and to act consistently with our human dignity “. And that’s why it is necessary to “choose with awareness and courage the path of a communication of peace”.
At the end of the meeting, Pope Leone gave the blessing to all present. Then he signed an autograph on a baseball ball, a sport of which he is passionate, and stuck by a journalist to organize a charity tennis match for the pontifical missionary works, replied: “Of course it is fine.” “I bring Agassi,” the journalist insisted joking. Prevost replied «Just do not bring Sinner », Playing on the double sense both because Italian is the number one in the world and because his surname in English means “sinner”.
Leone XIV also said that the trip to Nicea is “in preparation”. Then a nice off -program. He stopped for a moment to ask the assistants if he should give him the participants the rosaries in memory of the meeting. To the negative response, the pontiff addressed to them jokingly: “I’m still learning”.
