Jubilee of Communication

As part of the great Jubilee of Hope that we are currently experiencing, specific jubilees that will take place throughout the year 2025 have begun. The first was the Jubilee of Communication. Pope Francis summoned all those working in areas of social communication in the world (journalists, designers, writers, etc.) for a period of celebration and learning on January 24, 25 and 26. The reflection called for responsibility, recalling the power of communication to build a world of hope in the midst of the difficult events afflicting humanity. An important point he touched upon was the divine vocation of the communicator and the importance of not only transmitting information but of being able to go out to meet others. Pope Francis reminded communicators gathered in the Paul VI Hall that “to communicate is to step out of oneself a little to give of one's own to the other. And communication is not only the going out, but also the encounter with others. Knowing how to communicate is a great wisdom, a great wisdom!” He expressed his joy for this very important meeting, “I am happy about this jubilee for those working in communications. Your work builds: it builds society, it builds the Church, it moves everyone forward.”

As part of the jubilee, the meeting on communications was a call to keep in mind our Gospel and the values of our charism to nurture the kind of communication that can create safe and abundant digital space for encounters, to build warm and fraternal platforms within the media which can often be cold and depersonalized.

The work, or rather the diakonia of communication, is not simply a technical transmission of information, but must involve life and experience to be effective; it is a constant encounter and dialogue that communicates our charism – that which is our own and we give to the world.

Pope Francis concluded his speech by inviting us to tell “stories of hope,” stories charged with the dynamism of goodness, stories capable of transforming and repairing all that is broken in human life and relationships: communication has this power because it “carries within it something divine, and the first communicator is God himself.”