On this memorial of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of communicators, Pope Francis released his message for the 48th World Day of Communication, calling for the various media resources to remember that they are a network not of wires, but of people.

Pope Francis’ message to the world of communications is a gentle but poignant reminder to those who serve in the media that while advanced technology is making the world smaller, it should also be drawing us closer, something that can be accomplished not just with tolerance, but with genuine acceptance of other points of view.

To do this, the pope advises the media to recover a “sense of deliberateness and calm” that will enable us to be silent and really listen to others. “We need also to be patient if we want to understand those who are different from us. People only express themselves fully when they are not merely tolerated, but know that they are truly accepted. If we are genuinely attentive in listening to others, we will learn to look at the world with different eyes and come to appreciate the richness of human experience as manifested in different cultures and traditions.’

This includes acceptance of the values Christianity brings into the world, “such as the vision of the human person, the nature of marriage and the family, the proper distinction between the religious and political spheres, the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, and many others.”

How, can communication be at the service of an authentic culture of encounter? The pope finds guidance in the question of Jesus “And who is my neighbor?” (Lk 10:29) and the parable of the Good Samaritan.

“Those who communicate, in effect, become neighbors. The Good Samaritan not only draws nearer to the man he finds half dead on the side of the road; he takes responsibility for him. Jesus shifts our understanding: it is not just about seeing the other as someone like myself, but of the ability to make myself like the other. Communication is really about realizing that we are all human beings, children of God. I like seeing this power of communication as ‘neighborliness’.”

Francis called those communications that are aimed at manipulating others or promoting consumption to be “a form of violent aggression” like that suffered by the man in the parable who was beaten and robbed and left lying on the side of the road.

“The Levite and the priest do not regard him as a neighbor, but as a stranger to be kept at a distance. In those days, it was rules of ritual purity which conditioned their response. Nowadays there is a danger that certain media so condition our responses that we fail to see our real neighbor.”

This is why it will never be enough to just be passers-by on the digital highway, simply connected for the sake of being connected.

“ . . . (C)onnections need to grow into true encounters. We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. We need to love and to be loved. We need tenderness. . . . The world of media also has to be concerned with humanity, it too is called to show tenderness.”

In this way the digital world can become an environment rich in humanity, “a network not of wires but of people.”

He also gives good advice to Christians in the media. Calling the internet “a gift from God” he said it can be used to spread the Christian message to the ends of the earth.

“Keeping the doors of our churches open also means keeping them open in the digital environment so that people, whatever their situation in life, can enter, and so that the Gospel can go out to reach everyone. We are called to show that the Church is the home of all. Are we capable of communicating the image of such a Church?”

Effective Christian witness “is not about bombarding people with religious messages, but about our willingness to be available to others ‘by patiently and respectfully engaging their questions and their doubts as they advance in their search for the truth and the meaning of human existence’ (BENEDICT XVI, Message for the 47th World Communications Day, 2013).”

We are challenged to be people of depth, to be attentive to what is happening around us and spiritually alert, he said.

“To dialogue means to believe that the ‘other’ has something worthwhile to say, and to entertain his or her point of view and perspective. Engaging in dialogue does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the claim that they alone are valid or absolute.”

He concludes his message by calling on communicators to allow the image of the Good Samaritan, who tended the wounds of the injured man by pouring wine and oil over them, to be their inspiration.

“Let our communication be a balm which relieves pain and a fine wine which gladdens hearts. May the light we bring to others not be the result of cosmetics or special effects, but rather of our being loving and merciful ‘neighbors’ to those wounded and left on the side of the road.”

The 48th World Day of Social Communications, which was established by Vatican Council II (Inter Mirifica, 1963), is celebrated on the Sunday before the feast of Pentecost, which will fall on June 1, 2014.

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