2023-06-24 15:36:00
June 24, 2023 / 8:36 a.m.
This morning at the Vatican, Pope Francis proposed 3 elements for the good work of every journalist.
This was stated when receiving in audience the members of the foundation that promotes the Biagio Agnes International Prize for Journalism and Information, a well-known Italian journalist for the Italian RAI network.
The Holy Father acknowledged that the elements he offers, “perhaps they are used less and less, but they still have a lot to teach: notebook, pen and gaze.”
1.- Notebook
The Pontiff stressed that “noting a fact always implies great interior work. One writes it down because they are a direct witness or because a source, which one believes is reliable, relates it, opening it up to further verification”.
“The notebook reminds us of the importance of listening, but above all of letting ourselves be transferred by what happens. The journalist is never a teller of the story, but a person who has decided to live the implications of it with participation, with compassion”, he indicated.
2.- Pencil
Although it is used less and less, the Holy Father stressed that the pen “helps to process thought, connecting the head and hands, fostering memories and linking memory with the present.”
“The pencil evokes the artisan work to which the journalist is always called: he takes the pen in his hand after checking details, considering hypotheses, rebuilding and making sure of each step. In this fabric, intelligence and consciousness act together, touching each other’s existential chords.
Pope Francis then highlighted that the pen recalls the “creative act” of “journalists and media workers, an act that requires them to unite the search for truth with rectitude and respect for people, in particular with respect for professional ethics, just as Biagio Agnes did”.
3.- Look
The Pontiff warned that the notebook and pen “are mere accessories if they lack a look at reality. A real look, not just virtual. Today, more than before, one can be distracted by words, images and messages that contaminate life.
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Let us think, for example, of the sad phenomenon of fake news, bellicose rhetoric or anything that manipulates the truth. A careful look is necessary to disarm language and favor dialogue, ”she warned.
Recalling his message for this year’s World Day of Social Communications, Pope Francis stressed that the gaze must come from the heart, from where “the appropriate words spring to dispel the shadows of a closed and divided world and build a civilization better than which we have received.”
Walter Sánchez Silva is a senior writer at ACI Prensa, with more than 15 years covering Church events in Europe, America and Asia.
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