Pope Francis tells Catholic TV journalists to be 'channels' of peace

Vatican City, Dec 13, 2018 / 09:55 am

Pope Francis told a Catholic media group Thursday to be avenues of God's peace, sharing the stories of the poor, the least, and the voiceless.

"In your profession you can be 'living channels' of spirituality before God and before all your listeners and viewers," the pope told collaborators of the Italy-based Catholic broadcasting network Telepace.

"I renew, then, the invitation to 'promote a journalism of peace,"" he said, quoting his 2018 message for World Communications Day. "A journalism created by people for people, one that is at the service of all, especially those – and they the majority in our world – who have no voice."

Francis addressed the group Dec. 13, for their 40th anniversary, in the Vatican's Clementine Hall. Since 1990, at the request of St. John Paul II, the network has broadcast Vatican events such as the general audience, the Angelus, and papal Masses.

Praising the network, the pope said he wanted to urge three commitments in journalism – the first, to be "antennas of spirituality." The TV antenna has a beautiful symbolism, he said, because of its "dual function of emitting and receiving a signal."

Broadcast journalism should be a voice for the voiceless, he stressed; above all for the poor, the least, and the excluded. "Never forget them, the poor next door!" he said, praising the network's program about inmates on death row in Texas. This "is the spirituality of charity!" he said.

Urging journalists to consider how they can teach the Gospel to the young, he stated that he would like the media to "pay more attention to young people, not only by telling their failures but also their dreams and their hopes!"

Doing this, he said, is a matter of being witnesses of God's Word.

He also warned the media against letting their storytelling ever devolve into gossip, which undermines human community and sows "envy, jealousy, and lust for power."

"It is important, therefore, to communicate responsibly, also thinking about how much bad you can do with language, with chatter, with rumors," he said.