How to communicate and educate from a Christian perspective? Is it exactly the same as doing it outside of faith or with only "professional" criteria?
Among Francis' teachings in the past weeks, we have chosen three themes that are interconnected: worship, communication and education.
Worship: "to kneel the heart".
The core teaching of the Pope Francis during Christmas was the need for adoration. Already in his address to the Roman Curia to congratulate Christmas (December 21, 2023), he referred to "the need for adoration.listen with your heart" o "listen on your knees".
"Listening with the heart is much more than hearing a message or exchanging information; it is an inner listening capable of intercepting the desires and needs of others, a relationship that invites us to overcome schemes and overcome the prejudices in which we sometimes pigeonhole the lives of those around us".
Like Mary we have to listen "kneeling", i.e. "with humility and awe"..
"Listen 'on your knees'" -says the Pope- It is the best way to really listen, because it means that we are not in front of the other in the position of someone who thinks he already knows everything, of someone who has already interpreted things before even listening, of someone who looks down, but, on the contrary, we open ourselves to the mystery of the other, ready to receive with humility what he wants to teach us.".
When it comes to listening, Francis went on to explain, sometimes we are like wolves who are always trying to devour as soon as possible the words of the other, with our impressions and judgments. "On the other hand, listening to each other requires inner silence, but also a space of silence between listening and answering.".
And all this is learned in prayer:"We learn all this in prayer, because it widens the heart, brings our self-centeredness down from its pedestal, teaches us to listen to others and generates in us the silence of contemplation. We learn contemplation in prayer, kneeling before the Lord, but not only with our legs, kneeling with our heart!"
The art of listening is learned, in short, when prejudices are set aside, with openness and sincerity, "with my heart on my knees".
This helps us to another art, the "art of discernment": "That art of the spiritual life that strips us of the pretension of knowing everything, of the risk of thinking that it is enough to apply the rules, of the temptation to go ahead [...] simply repeating patterns, without considering that the Mystery of God always surpasses us and that the life of people and the reality that surrounds us are and will always be superior to ideas and theories. Life is always superior to ideas. We need to practice spiritual discernment.
All of this will also help us to exercise discernment at the pastoral level. "The Christian faith - let us remember - does not want to confirm our certainties, nor settle us in easy religious certainties, nor give us quick answers to the complex problems of life.".
Contemplation, awe, adoration
Adoration once again occupies a central place in the homily for Christmas Eve (December 24, 2013). The first thing, the Pope points out, is to contemplate the way in which God becomes incarnate, taking the path of humility and littleness, in a world in which power and strength are often the most important things. For this reason, "How ingrained in us is the worldly idea of a distant and controlling God, rigid and powerful, who helps his own to impose himself on others! [...] He was born 'for all'...., during the census of ‘the whole earth'.". When we look at the tenderness of God, his face in that Child, we see that he is God of "...".compassion and mercy, omnipotent always and only in masterr". That is God's way of being.
Contemplation is the source of wonder. Before God each one of us is not a number in a census, but our name is written in his heart. And he says to us: "For you I became flesh, for you I became like you.". And the consequence: "He, who became flesh, does not expect from you your successful results, but your open and trusting heart. And you in Him will rediscover who you are: a beloved son of God, a beloved daughter of God. Now you can believe it, because tonight the Lord came into the light to illuminate your life and His eyes shine with love for you.""Christ does not look at numbers but at faces". But who looks at Him?
Hence the need for adoration, which is "the way to welcome the Incarnation".. As the Pope points out:"To adore is not to waste time, but to allow God to dwell in our time. It is to make the seed of the incarnation flourish in us, it is to collaborate with the work of the Lord, who as leaven changes the world. To adore is to intercede, to make reparation, to allow God to set history right."And especially before the Eucharist, as Tolkien writes: "I set before you what there is on earth worthy of love: the Blessed Sacrament. In it you will find romance, glory, honor, honor, fidelity and the true way to all that you love on earth." (J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 43, March 1941).
Communicating: "disarming language".
Another theme to which the Bishop of Rome frequently returns is communication. In an Address to the Association of German Catholic Journalists (January 4, 2024), he proposes to them, in the context of our conflictive communication, flooded with inflammatory statements, the demilitarization of the heart and the "language disarmament":
"This is fundamental: to foster tones of peace and understanding, to build bridges, to be available to listen, to exercise respectful communication towards the other and his reasons. This is urgent in society, but also the Church needs a 'kind and at the same time prophetic' communication.".
Spiritual dimension and universal vision
Francis reminds them of two proposals from his Letter to the People of God on pilgrimage in Germany (2019). First, care for the spiritual dimension.. That is,"concrete and constant adaptation to the Gospel and not to the models of the world, rediscovering personal and communal conversion through the Sacraments and prayer, docility to the Holy Spirit and not to the spirit of the times".
And secondly, the universal, Catholic dimension, "not to conceive the life of faith as something relative only to one's own cultural and national sphere. Participation in the universal synodal process is good from this point of view.".
In this dual perspective, Catholic communicators have a valuable role to play: "By providing correct information, they can help to clarify misunderstandings and, above all, prevent them from arising, helping mutual understanding and not oppositions.". They should not be kept "neutral" language they convey, but rather "put yourself on the line"to become involved in order to be a point of reference. This also requires "communicators who highlight the stories and faces of those to whom few or no one pays attention. [Even if it means going against the tide and wearing out the soles of their shoes!".
Testimony, courage, a broad outlook
In another speech to those responsible for communication in dioceses and ecclesial institutions (January 12, 2014), he invited them to "go to the world".the root of what we communicate, the truth we are called to bear witness to, the communion that unites us in Jesus Christ"; also to "not to fall into the error of thinking that the object of our communication is our strategies or individual companies.", "not to close ourselves in our solitude, in our fears or ambitions", "not betting everything on technological progress".
We must be realistic: "The challenge of good communication is today more complex than ever, and there is the risk of facing it with a worldly mentality: with the obsession of control, power, success; with the idea that the problems are primarily material, technological, organizational, economic.".
Realism is also, and he encouraged them, to "starting from the heart"listening, communicating, seeing with the heart things that others do not see, sharing them and telling them, overcoming a purely mundane perspective.
For us, communicating is not just a matter of marketing or technology: "We are not just a matter of marketing or technology.is to be in the world to take care of the other, of others, and to become all things to all people; to share a Christian reading of events; not to surrender to the culture of aggressiveness and denigration; to build a network to share goodness, truth and beauty through sincere relationships; and to involve young people in our communication.".
Peter's successor wanted to leave these communicators with three words: witness, courage and a broad outlook. Witness makes our communication credible and attractive. He told them that after the shame of the (sexual) abuses in countries like France, the Church is living a path of purification; but the darkest moments are those that precede the light. He advised them to work with creativity, welcome and fraternity towards all.
"The courage that comes from humility and professional seriousness, and that makes your communication a coherent and at the same time open, extroverted network.". This must be your courage, the Pope told them. "Even if the recipients may seem indifferent, sometimes critical, even hostile, do not be discouraged. Do not judge them. Share the joy of the Gospel, the love that makes us know God and understand the world."because many today are thirsty for God and seek him also through us.
"Broad look", finally. "To look at the whole world in its beauty and complexity. In the midst of the murmurings of our time, of the inability to see the essential, to discover that what unites us is greater than what divides us; and that it is communicated with the creativity that is born of love. [Everything becomes clearer - even our communication - from a heart that sees with love.".
Educating: towards a true humanism
In his address to the International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC) on January 19, Francis welcomed the centenary of its roots in the time of Pius XI and Pius XII. From those roots, he noted, emerge two aspects that Pope Bergoglio wished to underline.
First of all, networking. He proposed the "the audacity to go against the tide, globalizing hope, unity and harmony, instead of indifference, polarization and conflict.".
Second, to be instruments for "to reconcile and confirm peace and charity among men". (Pius XII, Letter Catholicas studiorum universitates, 1949), and to do so today, when we are in a war scenario ("the third world war in pieces") in an interdisciplinary way.
Educational passion
In the Magna Carta of the Catholic universities, the Apostolic Constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae (1990), John Paul II began by saying that they are born "of the heart of the Church". (and not only of Christian intelligence), because they are an expression of the love that animates the action of the Church. Especially in these universities it must be seen what and how is an educational project:
"An educational project -Francisco points out. is not based only on a perfect program, nor on efficient equipment, nor on good corporate governance. In the university there must be a greater passion, a common search for truth, a horizon of meaning, and all this lived in a community of knowledge where the generosity of love, as it were, is palpable.".
Paraphrasing Hannah Arendt (who studied love as desire in the work of St. Augustine), the Pope urged not to replace desire with functionalism or bureaucracy. In that sense "it is not enough to grant academic degrees, it is necessary to awaken and safeguard in each person the desire to be." Nor is it enough to design competitive careers, but "the discovery of fruitful vocations must be promoted, inspiring paths of authentic life and integrating the contribution of each person into the creative dynamics of the community."And alluding to a very topical subject, he added: "It is true that we must think about artificial intelligence, but also about spiritual intelligence, without which man remains a stranger to himself.".
The university is an indispensable resource for not only living "in step with the times".The responsibility for the great human needs and dreams of the youth has been postponed.
Alluding to a fable by Kafka, he called for the university not to be driven by fear, shutting itself up in a bubble of security but with its back to reality. "Fear devours the soul".
"Knowing for the sake of knowing."said Unamuno, "is inhumane.". The task of every university must be lived with clarity by a Catholic university: "....It must take a stand and demonstrate it with its actions in a transparent way, "getting its hands dirty" evangelically in the transformation of the world and in the service of the human person.".
In other words, it is about"to translate culturally, with a language open to new generations and new times, the richness of Christian inspiration, to identify the new frontiers of thought, science and technology and to assume them with balance and wisdom [...], to build intergenerational and intercultural alliances in favor of the care forthe common home, of a vision of integral ecology that gives an effective response to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor".
Indeed, this is a program not only for Catholic universities, but for any educational institution of Catholic (and in general Christian) inspiration.
