[Newsstand] Pope Francis’ advice to journalists

In his many writings, Pope Francis almost always referred to the media in negative terms. Exceptions exist: His Messages on World Communications Day (12 in all) and his occasional speeches on media-related events spoke of the media more comprehensively. He certainly had high hopes for journalism, and made himself more available to journalists than any previous pope.

But, in his other writings, he referred to the media as a looming or present threat to both church and society. In other words, when the focus of a document or a speech of his is not on the media itself, the media figures as a source of danger. 

Let me limit my examples to his three encyclicals and his first apostolic exhortation. In Laudato Si, “media” is mentioned six times; in Fratelli Tutti, 14 times; in Dilexit Nos, once. In Evangelii Gaudium, the exhortation which served as a blueprint for his papacy, “media” is mentioned six times and “journalists” once. But the meaning is almost always negative: a source of risk. 

As in other aspects of his 12-year pontificate, he set the tone in Evangelii Gaudium. In an exhortation devoted to “the joy of the Gospel,” the media is seen as a source of distortion. “If we attempt to put all things in a missionary key, this will also affect the way we communicate the message. In today’s world of instant communication and occasionally biased media coverage, the message we preach runs a greater risk of being distorted or reduced to some of its secondary aspects” (Paragraph 34). It is viewed as an actual or potential obstacle. “At times our media culture and some intellectual circles convey a marked skepticism with regard to the Church’s message, along with a certain cynicism” (79). It is included among the many reasons for the “breakdown” in the way the Catholic faith is handed down to the next generation, along with “unbridled consumerism” and “lack of pastoral care among the poor” (70).

Paragraph 47 of Laudato Si describes how media can magnify the worst aspects of “technological innovation.” This important passage starts this way: “Furthermore, when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.”

Paragraph 201 of Fratelli Tutti explains how media can coarsen public discourse and deepen social divisions. “Indeed, the media’s noisy potpourri of facts and opinions is often an obstacle to dialogue, since it lets everyone cling stubbornly to his or her own ideas, interests and choices, with the excuse that everyone else is wrong.”

Paragraph 84 of Dilexit Nos includes social media in the distractions that may lead the faithful away from spiritual nourishment (and for which a renewed commitment to First Friday communion may prove to be a remedy). “Amid the frenetic pace of today’s world and our obsession with free time, consumption and diversion, cell phones and social media, we forget to nourish our lives with the strength of the Eucharist.”

That important Paragraph 47 of Laudato Si sums up the task ahead, as far as the media is concerned. “Efforts need to be made to help these media become sources of new cultural progress for humanity and not a threat to our deepest riches.”

Call to mission

Many of these references to the media assume that journalists have fallen short of the media’s true role. What is that role? In the Pope’s media-focused writings and speeches, a rounder picture emerges. It is not an unfamiliar image, but sometimes Pope Francis used fresh, inspired language that changes how we see the media. 

That was the case, for me at least, in November 2021. That month, Pope Francis honored Philip Pullella and Valentina Alazraki, two senior journalists covering the Vatican, with the Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX and then with a short speech for the ages. That speech was the best description of the work of journalism I’ve ever read in almost three decades as a journalist.

The Pope began by expressing his concern for journalists: “I want to pay homage to your entire working community, to tell you that the Pope cares about you, follows you, esteems you, and considers you precious.”

Then he defined journalism as a call to mission, comparing it to the work of doctors and relating it to the never-ending war on evil. “Journalism does not come about by choosing a profession, but by embarking on a mission, a little like a doctor, who studies and works so that the evil in the world may be healed.”

He describes the mission in terms that are, at once, both familiar and new: “Your mission is to explain the world, to make it less obscure, to make those who live in it less afraid of it and look at others with greater awareness, and also with more confidence. It is not an easy mission…. The risk, as you well know, is to be overwhelmed by the news instead of being able to make sense of it.”

This description of mission is already deeply rich — and then he took one more step. He encouraged journalists “to preserve and cultivate that sense of mission” by bringing to our attention “three verbs that I believe characterize good journalism.” Some of my students and some of the participants in workshops I’ve conducted since then may remember them: ascoltare, approfondire, raccontare. 

I like to use the original Italian for two reasons: Many of the English translations are simply correct and not evocative enough. Listen, investigate, report is the official Vatican translation, reflected in many news accounts. And saying it in Italian preserves that moment of discovery, when the words hit like a revelation.

One of the first reports I read was a dispatch from the Vatican News service, which translated the three terms as listening, going deep, storytelling. It was this version which prompted me to look up the original Italian and compare the different English translations. 

In the Pope’s own lexicon, “ascoltare” is a familiar word; he had always encouraged the Church to listen (and not merely to hear). “Listening always goes hand in hand with seeing, with being present,” he said. “The journalism of listening and seeing well requires time” (and as we remember from Evangelii Gaudium, “time is greater than space,” meaning that the organizing principle behind the culture of encounter is spending time with the other person).

It was the translation of “approfondire” as “going deep” that suggested to me that the Pope’s perspective on journalism was not only old and familiar; it was also, to borrow from St. Augustine, “ever-new.” In a time of information overload, the Pope said, “the most important contribution that good journalism can make is that of in-depth analysis” or sense-making.

And the emphasis on “raccontare” is not only on the storytelling, but also on the connection between story and storyteller. “Reporting means not putting oneself in the foreground, nor setting oneself up as a judge, but allowing oneself to be struck and sometimes wounded by the stories we encounter, in order to be able to tell them with humility to our readers.”

These three terms then, in their deeper meaning: “Be present. Go deep. Give witness.” In time, we may see this perspective on journalism itself become one of the deep riches of the faith, the legacy of a newsmaker who truly understood the news. – Rappler.com

Veteran journalist John Nery is a Rappler columnist and program host. In the Public Square with John Nery airs on Rappler platforms every Wednesday at 8 pm.