Pope Francis encourages communicators around the world to remember the essence of the journalist's vocation in order to refund to communication its original meaning.

What were the first message and the first great event of the Holy Year? The Pope dedicated them to the world of communication. It happened shortly before his admission to the hospital.

As has often been the case, there are two possible readings of his teachings. First, that of his immediate interlocutors, not only those present in St. Peter's place , but in this case all professional communicators. Second, that of all Christians, and even of all people, called to communicate, in this Jubilee Year, especially hope.

In his message for the World Communications workshop (dated January 24, 2025, the workshop will be held on June 1) and in the framework the Jubilee Year, Francis invites especially the professionals in this field to be communicators of hope.

How: "Beginning with a renewal of their work and mission statement according to the spirit of the Gospel".

In the introduction to his message, Francis takes a look at how communication is presented today (often full of prejudices and provoking hatred and wounds). And he points out, as on other occasions, "the need to 'disarm' communication, to purify it of aggressiveness". Disarming communication is a budget in order to be able to communicate properly. 

Secondly, he explains, today we must not reduce communication to a slogan, which threatens to make "the paradigm of skill, of opposition, of the will to dominate and possess, of manipulation of public opinion" prevail.

There is also a third worrying phenomenon: the "programmed dispersion of attention". That is, the fact that digital systems shape us according to the laws of the market, and modify our perception of reality. They make us individualists disinterested in the common good and incapable of listening to understand the other. Their faces become blurred and we can easily turn them into "enemies". Meanwhile, in the face of this distortion of reality, hope becomes more difficult. 

Here the successor of Peter quotation Bernanos: "Only those who have had the courage to despair of the illusions and lies in which they found security, which they falsely took for hope, can hope. [...] Hope is a risk to run. It is even the risk of risks" (La libertad, ¿para qué? Madrid 1989, 91-92).

But, the Pope warns, for Christians hope - hidden, constant and patient virtue - is indispensable. 

And why? Because, as Benedict XVI said, it is a "performative" virtue, that is, capable of changing life: "Those who have hope live differently; they have been given a new life" (Spe Salvi, n. 2).

The message of Francis then suggests three ways for communication, above all for Christians, but in various ways for many others as well: to give reason for our hope; to hope together; not to forget the heart. The first, taken from St. Peter; the second, developed by Benedict XVI in his encyclical Spe salvi (2007); the third, linked to the magisterium of Francis, especially in his encyclical Dilexit nos ("He loved us", 2024).

"Give reason with meekness for the hope that is in us," the Pope proposes, following the first letter of Peter (cf. 3:15-16). In it, Francis sees the relationship between hope, witness and Christian communication. Founded on the Risen Christ, we must give - with gentleness and respect - a reason for our hope. Christ lives with us through the Holy Spirit that he has given us and that comes to each of us through baptism. 

In this letter of St. Peter, Francis detects three messages: 

First, regarding the foundation of our hope. What makes hope possible and realistic is that Christ lives and the Holy Spirit acts in us the life and strength of Christ. 

Second, with regard to our responsibility: we must be ready (and the Pope's understanding of this "readiness" is very demanding) to give this "reason" for our hope. It is demanding because it does not mean just talking; it means reflecting "the beauty of his love, a new way of living all things". And this is so because "it is love lived that raises the question and demands the answer: why do they live like this, why are they like this?".

Third message, regarding the way to give a reason for our hope. St. Peter says: "with gentleness and respect". And Francis adds: with gentleness and closeness, as companions on the way, following the example of Jesus with the disciples of Emmaus. 

For this reason,"the Pope said, using the language of the weavers of dreams, "Idream of a communication that can make us companions on the journey with so many of our brothers and sisters, so as to rekindle hope in them in such troubled times". Such communication must be "capable of speaking to the heart, not of arousing passionate reactions of isolation and anger, but attitudes of openness and friendship"; of "betting on beauty and hope even in the most apparently desperate situations"; "capable of generating commitment, empathy, concern for others"; "capable of helping us to recognize the dignity of every human being and [to] care together for our common home" (Encyclical Dilexit nos. 217).

He goes on to insist on the relationship between communication and hope: "I dream of a communication that does not sell illusions or fears, but that is capable of giving reasons to hope" (and evokes the style of Martin Luther King). But this requires us to be cured of self-referentiality and useless speeches. In this way we will be able to make others feel included in the hope that we propose and be "pilgrims of hope", as the Jubilee motto says.

The Jubilee proclaims hope as both a staff and a community project . We walk - we live - together and together we pass through the Holy Door. 

For this reason, Francis points out, the Jubilee has many social implications. We are challenged by the prisoners in jails, by those who suffer or are marginalized. 

To communicators, as part of the peacemakers who "will be called children of God" (Mt 5:9), the Jubilee calls for "attentive, calm, reflective communication, capable of indicating paths of dialogue".

This is why the successor of Peter encourages them to tell "stories of good" hidden among the folds of the chronicle; as if imitating the gold diggers who sift through the sand to look for the tiny nugget. "It is beautiful to find these seeds of hope and make them known."

Hope," the Pope observes, "is lived from the heart. This means "to be meek and never forget the face of the other; to speak to the heart". Not to let oneself be carried away by instinctive reactions, but "to sow hope always, even when it is difficult, even when it costs, even when it seems not to bear fruit".

Hope leads us to try to practice a communication that knows how to "heal the wounds of our humanity".

Here Francis gives a core topic : the trust of the heart. For, in fact, hope has to do essentially with trust (with faith, already at the human level) and with love. The confidence-hope, let us call it so, that the future will be better for the children, for the children, for the poor. 

No one denies that this is a challenge, but we need "a non-hostile communication that spreads a culture of care, that builds bridges and crosses the visible and invisible walls of our time"; a "telling of stories full of hope, taking into account our common destiny and writing together the story of our future". And since the Pope is speaking to Christians (though not exclusively), he concludes that such communication is possible with the grace of God, which the Jubilee financial aid us to receive in abundance.

The Jubilee of Communicators, the first event of the Holy Year, took place on January 25.

In his speech, which he did not read but referred to the participants, Francis began by remembering those who have lost their lives in the service of this task - more than 120 in the last year alone - and those who are in jail for having been faithful to the profession of informing - more than 500.

The vocation and mission statement of journalists is fundamental in our society. In communication, it is important not only what is narrated - the facts - but how it is done, in order to nurture hope, create bridges and open doors, and not the opposite. 

Francis then went on to deepen his dialogue with the reporters on the basis of two questions addressed to him by the reporters. 

First of all, courage: "that inner drive, that strength that comes from the heart and allows us to face difficulties and challenges without being overwhelmed by fear". 

The word "courage" - the Pope adds - could recapitulate all the reflections of the world social communications conference of recent years. 

To the appeal for the release of the detained journalists, Francis now adds the appeal for the "release of the inner strength of the heart".

The Pope urges us to take advantage of the Jubilee to renew or rediscover this courage. What does it consist of? 

"Let us put back at the center of our heart the respect for what is highest and noblest in our humanity, let us avoid filling it with what rots and decays it. The choices each of us makes count, for example, in expelling that 'brain rot' caused by addiction to continual scrolling, 'scrolling', on social networks, chosen by the Oxford Dictionary as word of the year." 

And the Pope asks, "Where can we find the best cure for this disease if not by working, all together, on Education, especially that of the young? "

For this, he proposes, we need "media literacy", that is, Education in critical thinking and discernment, so that we grow personally and participate actively in our communities.

"We need brave entrepreneurs, brave computer engineers, so that the beauty of communication is not corrupted. Great changes cannot be the result of a multitude of sleeping minds, but begin with the communion between enlightened hearts."

Like St. Paul, who was converted following a meeting with the light of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and the subsequent explanation given to him by Ananias, the work of communication can also render this service: "To find the right words for those rays of light that can touch the heart and make us see things differently.

St. Paul recounts the event of his conversion three times in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. On the occasion of this Jubilee, Peter's successor exhorts communicators: 

"Tell stories of hope, stories that nourish life. May your art of storytelling also be the art of telling stories of hope (hopetelling). When you tell evil, leave room for the possibility of mending what is torn, so that the dynamism of good can mend what is broken. Sow questions.