Dear People of God,
I am pleased to warmly welcome you all on the occasion of the celebration of the 57th World Social Communications Day. It is now eighteen years ago since we last hosted such an event in the Archdiocese of Kampala, during the episcopate of His Eminence Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala.
On this World Communications Day, we take up the command of Jesus to preach the Good News of the Gospel to the whole world. The theme for the 57th World Day of Social Communications, chosen by Pope Francis is ‘Speaking with the Heart’. “It is the heart that spurred us to go, to see and to listen, and it is the heart that moves us towards an open and welcoming way of communicating as the Pontiff elaborates. Pope Francis in his 2022 Message for the World Communications Day emphasized the quality of listening, which he said “is decisive in the grammar of communication and is a condition for genuine dialogue.”
Pope John Paul II (1990) in his encyclical Redemptoris missio no. 37 said: “The world of communications is the first Areopagus of the modern age, unifying humanity and turning it into what is known as a ‘global village’. The communications media have acquired such importance as to be for many the chief means of information an d education, of guidance and inspiration for many people in their personal, family and social behaviour. In particular, the younger generation is growing up in a world conditioned by the mass media.”
In the present epoch, people are increasingly losing the capacity to communicate well, to listen and understand one another, while at the same time listening is undergoing new developments, especially due to new forms of communicating. These trends demonstrate that “listening is still essential in humans.
The call to speak with the heart, radically challenges our times, which are so inclined towards indifference and indignation, at times even on the basis of disinformation which falsifies and exploits the truth. We are all invited to reflect that listening involves more than simply the sense of hearing. True listening is a foundation of genuine relationships, and is foundational to the relationship between God and humanity.
listening corresponds to the language of God who in love invites us to covenant of love. He reveals Himself to us by speaking and listening to men and women, recognizes them as His partners in dialogue, thus human beings are called to voluntarily listen and collaborate in this dialogue. We are then charged with the responsibility of genuinely encountering one another so that our love for each other may become stronger.
With the pre-eminence of powerful digital technology which can create, alter or simulate images and events, much of what we actually ‘see’ can be quite deceiving and misleading. This mainly points out that at the exercise of professional Journalism, listening objectively is a mandatory tool. This is saying nothing of irresponsible journalists whose basic tool is to deceive.
I call upon all communicators especially journalists through listening, to be keen to construct authentic stories that can help many countries and peoples of the world which have been abandoned to their fate under racism, oppression, discrimination, conflicts, insurgency, epidemic and war to find sympathy and solidarity. After all, the fact is that many countries and institutions and individuals who can make a difference, really rely only on the reports of the media and journalists for their decision-making process for bad or for good.
As we celebrate this years’ World Communication Day, we pray for journalists who put themselves in danger to bring to others’ attention wrongdoing and human suffering, that their efforts to humanise society may bear fruit and that they may be kept safe from harm. We pray for politicians that they may communicate candidly with the electorate and have the courage publicly to address controversial issues which need to be resolved if human dignity and the common good of society are to be upheld. We pray for those who have been interiorly imprisoned as a result of their exposure to evil on the internet, that they may be given the strength of will to break out of their addictive behaviour and find peace and healing.
We pray for ourselves, that we may, through God’s grace, use modern media judiciously, so that our horizons may be expanded and we may grow in empathy with others, especially those who are most vulnerable.
I wish you all nice celebrations and May Sts. Francis De Sales and Achilles Kiwanuka intercede for you all as you properly communicate. Amen.
†Paul Ssemogerere
ARCHBISHOP OF KAMPALA
