Paul VI: Dialogue as the antidote to religious marketing and social media outrages

By Andrea Tornielli

Dialogue “is not proud, it is not bitter, it is not offensive. Its authority is intrinsic to the truth it explains, to the charity it communicates, to the example it proposes; it is not a command, it is not an imposition. It is peaceful; it avoids violent methods; it is patient; it is generous”: Thus wrote Pope St Paul VI in his first encyclical, Ecclesiam suam, published sixty years ago on 6 August 1964.

These few words are enough to intuit the extraordinary relevance of Pope Paul’s letter, which came out entirely in manuscript from his pen just over a year after his election to the pontificate, with the council still open.
 

The Pope, born in the Italian province of Brescia, called Jesus’ mission a “dialogue of salvation,” noting that He did not physically oblige anyone to accept him; it was a formidable demand of love, which, if it constituted a tremendous responsibility in those to whom it was addressed, nevertheless “left them free to respond to it or to reject it.” This type of relationship, he said, “indicates a proposal of courteous esteem, of understanding and of goodness on the part of the one who inaugurates the dialogue; it excludes the a priori condemnation, the offensive and time-worn polemic and emptiness of useless conversation.”

One cannot help but notice the stark difference between this approach and that which characterizes so much digital chatter by those who judge everything and everyone, who use derogatory language, and who seem to need an “enemy” to exist.

Dialogue, which for Pope Paul VI is intrinsic in the proclamation of the Gospel, does not have as its goal the immediate conversion of the interlocutor – conversion which, moreover, is always the work of God’s grace, not of the missionary’s dialectical wisdom. Instead, conversion presupposes “the state of mind of one… who realizes that he can no longer separate his own salvation from the endeavour to save others…”

In a word: One is not saved by alone. Nor are we saved by building walls or enclosing ourselves in fortresses separated from the world in order to care for the “pure” and avoid contamination.

Dialogue is “the union of truth and charity, of understanding and love is achieved.” It is not the negation of identity of those who believe that it is necessary to conform to the world and its agendas in order to proclaim the Gospel. Neither is it the exaltation of identity as a kind of separation that makes one look down on “others.” “The Church should enter into dialogue with the world in which it exists and labours. The Church has something to say, the Church has a message to deliver; the Church has a communication to offer” because “even before converting the world, indeed, in order to convert it, we must meet the world and talk to it.” And the world, Paul VI explained, “cannot be saved from the outside.”

But Pope Paul’s first encyclical, from its very first words, contains other valuable insights for the times we are living in. It is "His Church", Ecclesiam suam, that is, the Church is the possession of its founder Jesus Christ. It is not “ours,” it is not built by our hands, it is not the fruit of our ingenuity. Its effectiveness does not depend on marketing, campaigns designed at a desk, ratings, or the ability to fill stadiums. The Church does not exist because it is capable of producing big events, media fireworks, and influencer strategies.

It is in the world to make known – through the daily witness of so many “poor Christs,” forgiven sinners – the beauty of an encounter that saves and gives a horizon of hope. The Church stands before the world to offer everyone the opportunity to come across the gaze of Jesus.