Vatican announces theme for 57th World Day of Social Communications

By Vatican News staff writer

“Speak with the heart: Veritatem facientes in caritate” (Doing the truth in charity) is the theme for World Day of Social Communications 2023, announced the Holy See Press Office on Thursday.

The theme, which connects with that of 2022 – “Listen with the ear of the heart” is intended to form part of the path that will lead the entire Church to the celebration of the Synod in October 2023.

Speaking with the heart, explained a statement, means giving “a reason for your hope” and by doing so gently, “using the gift of communication as a bridge and not as a wall.”

It is an invitation to “go against the grain” at a time characterized by polarization and heated debates that exacerbate tempers – even in ecclesial life.

Speaking the truth with a style of mercy

The theme further invites everyone not to “fear to state the at times uncomfortable truth that finds its foundation in the Gospel.”

This proclamation, however, must not be separated from “a style of mercy, of sincere participation in the joys and sufferings of people of our time,” as shown in the dialogue between the mysterious wayfarer and the disciples of Emmaus in the Bible.

Non-hostile communication

In the dramatic context of conflicts in different regions of the globe, the theme affirms the importance of non-hostile communication

Thus, it promotes, “a communication open to dialogue with the other, that fosters “integral disarmament”, that strives to dismantle the “psychosis of war” that lurks in our hearts,” as Saint John XXIII prophetically exhorted sixty years ago in Pacem in Terris.

In this regard, everyone, and in particular those who work in the field of communications, are called upon to exercise their profession “as a mission for building a more just, more fraternal and more human future.”

Appointments of new consultors

Pope Francis, 29 September, appointed two new members and 10 new consultors to the Dicastery for Communications.

The members include Archbishop Ivan Maffeis, archbishop of Perugia-Città della Pieve (Italy) and Bishop Valdir Jose De Castro, of Campo Limpo (Brazil). 

The Dicastery's new consultors are Fr. George Plattoham, secretary of the Office of Social Communication of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC); Oscar Elizade Prada, coordinator of the Department of Communication of CELAM; Helen Osman, president of SIGNIS; Fr. Fabio Pasqualetti, dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences at the Pontifical Salesian University; Sr. Veronica Donatello, head of the National Service for the Pastoral Care of Persons with Disabilities of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Sister Adelaide Felicitas Ndilu, national executive secretary of the Commission for Social Communications of the Kenyan Bishops' Conference and director of Radio Waumini; Father Andrew Kaufa, coordinator of the Office of Communications of the AMECEA Regional Conference of Bishops; Tomas Insua, executive director of the Laudato Si movement; Professor Antonio Cisternino, president of the University of Pisa's Ateno Information System (CIO); and John E. Corcoran, founder of Trinity Life Sciences.