VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The hope and grace that come from taking part in a Jubilee celebration is not a personal privilege, but must be communicated and shared with others, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the chief Vatican organizer of the Holy Year 2025.
"This is why the first big event (after the start of the Holy Year) is with the world of communications," he told reporters during a briefing marking the start of the three-day Jubilee of the World of Communications.
If people are able to experience the jubilee and its events firsthand, "well, then they are also able to recount it, to share, to talk about it with others. This is what we are hoping for," he said Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists.
About 10,000 people from 138 countries signed up to take part in the events Jan. 24-26 in Rome for the special jubilee for writers, communicators and those working in media.
Maria Ressa, a Filipino and U.S. journalist, told reporters that a jubilee, which is only celebrated once every 25 years, is "so extremely needed in our world today."
"It feels like the right time to come together and go back to our values, a period of grace, remember the good, and then gain strength and courage and hope from that. That's why I'm here," said Ressa, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with a Russian journalist for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.
Even though only 25 years have elapsed since the last Jubilee for communicators in 2000, it feels like a century for how much the world of communication has changed, Archbishop Fisichella said.
"Today we are in a situation in which we have a culture of 'right now,' everything today and immediately, which is not always positive because it impedes reflection" and consistency, he said.
When asked how journalists are supposed to be better at telling stories of hope without ignoring important news, too, the archbishop said, "even bad news must be full of hope, otherwise we fall into desperation."
For a person of faith, he said, everything is filled with hope, starting with waking up in the morning, "the first thing that accompanies us is hope."
Colum McCann, an Irish writer and author of seven novels, said, "I believe what we do is at the forefront of our ability to at least give meaning if not hope," which possesses a particular power.
"Samuel Beckett, the Irish playwright said, 'Can't go on, must go on.' And that feels like some of the atmosphere that we're in at this particular moment. The idea that we must tell one of those stories" that give meaning or hope, he said.
People connect and understand one another through stories and storytelling, "not didactic ideas that are pushed down," McCann said. And "if we don't understand one another, we're doomed,"
Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, said communicating based on hope means building a relationship with readers or viewers and fostering relationships between others.
Hope is a call to action, a call to build a bridge and communicate better, especially stories of hope, which is why the dicastery was launching the hashtag #HopeTelling.
"It doesn't mean not seeing the evil that exists, but hoping that things can change," he said.
The Diocese of Rome offered journalists an evening penitential liturgy Jan. 24 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Archbishop Fisichella said the communicators were to be the only large jubilee group to be offered the special liturgy, which featured more than 60 stations available for confession.
A relic of the heart of St. Francis de Sales was carried down the central nave and placed for veneration before the main altar. The theme of the readings and reflections was the Lord's ability to purify the human heart, turning it from a heart of stone to one filled with God's love, sincerity and compassion for others.
Comboni Father Giulio Albanese, an Italian journalist, offered a brief reflection, highlighting the importance of true conversion.
The risk Catholic communicators face, he said, is "to betray God's dictates, miserably becoming, it should be said, mercenaries of the words of others."
For one's love for God to be authentic, it must translate into love for others, he said.
"Let us ask ourselves whether our way of communicating … expresses God's love or whether it sometimes reflects mindsets that are spurious, mercantile, worldly, offensive, indeed, against God and against the human person," he said.
Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar for the Diocese of Rome, presided over a Mass after the penitential liturgy, reflecting in his homily on Pope Francis' message for the World Day of Communications and its call on journalists to inspire hope in people and shun aggressive language.
In the Gospel of John, he said, Jesus offers an example of what that looks like by the way he speaks to the crowd and to the woman caught in adultery.
The crowd wants to stone her for her crime, but Jesus "disarms" the conversation by saying whoever is without sin can cast the first stone. He is not denying the reality of her sin, he said, but reminds them everyone is a sinner and only God can judge.
Communicators must remember that even God doesn't define people by their sins and sees them as much more than just their mistakes, Cardinal Reina said. In fact, Jesus gives the woman hope by telling her he does not condemn her and to "Go and sin no more."
"This was her jubilee" in being offered a new horizon of hope, he said. "If we want to celebrate our Jubilee of the World of Communication then let us embrace this style, this model that Jesus offers us: 'Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone'; 'Neither do I condemn you'; and Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more.'"
