Pope to COPERCOM: Your reality is noble, requiring patience and vision

By Francesca Merlo

Greeting members of the Coordination of Communication Associations (COPERCOM), for the twenty-fifth anniversary of their founding, Pope Francis took the opportunity to "reflect with you on a few objectives".

Coordination

The first objective was "coordination". Pope Francis described this as "a noble objective to bring several realities together to achieve a very specific goal". He noted that it is not an easy task, but rather one that requires patience, vision and unity. "The road travelled in these twenty-five years already offers you a good wealth of experience to further improve the work of coordination", noted the Pope.

Change

The second objective, the Pope continued, is "change". He noted that "we have repeatedly observed that 'what we are living through is not simply an era of change, but a change of epoch". Bearing this in mind, the Pope continued, "you should not be afraid to let yourselves be challenged by the challenges and opportunities that the present time proposes". In this, he added, you should be experts: "experts in change". But be careful, he cautioned, "because change does not mean going along with the fashions of the moment, but converting one's way of being and thinking, starting from the attitude of amazement at what does not change and yet is always new".

Encounter, listening and speaking

Pope Francis went on to speak of the third objective: encounter, listening and speaking. He described this as a sort of  "a, b, c" of the good communicator "because it is the dynamic that underpins all good communication".

Encounter means opening one's heart, without pretense, to the person in front of one, said the Pope. "Encounter is the prerequisite for knowledge". If there is no encounter, there is no communication, he added. And listening is a matter of learning to be silent, first of all within oneself, and to respect the other by listening to him.

"Let your work always be guided by these actions, always focusing on nouns, that is, on people, rather than on distracting adjectives", said the Pope. 

The synodal path

The fourth and final objective the Pope focused on was "the synodal path". The Pope noted that the Church is walking a path and that walking in a synodal way means "living ecclesiality to the full". 

Bringing his discourse to an end, Pope Francis urged that as national associations, "you are places where every day concepts and theories are measured against the fatigue and hope of women and men". 

Finally, the Pope entrusted each member to St Francis de Sales, "patron of journalists and communicators, and to Blessed Carlo Acutis, who shows us how important it is to be creative and ingenious in the world of digital communication".