Sister Hosea Rupprecht shares, “One of my mom’s sayings was, ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.’ This came to mind as I reflected on the message for this year’s World Communications Day: ‘Share with gentleness the hope that is in your heart.'”
World Communications Day reminds the church to embrace media technologies for the proclamation of the Gospel and the spread of goodness, and serves to educate her sons and daughters to be critical thinkers when engaging media messages.
Some six decades before Elon Musk began fretting over blue checks on Twitter accounts, the Catholic Church issued in-depth guidance on all forms of social communication — including those yet to be invented.
World Day of the Sick was established to give attention to the ill and their caregivers; Catholic Press Month celebrates the role of Catholic publications to inform, educate and evangelize the people of God.
“Listening with the ear of the heart” is the theme of this year’s World Communications Day, which most dioceses will mark May 29, the Sunday before Pentecost.
“We Catholics can, and should, be role models for others in how to listen and dialogue in service to the truth and the common good.”
In the search for truth, Catholic communicators must learn how to listen above all else, the Vatican said.
In the age of instant communications and fake news, journalists — like everyone else — need to recover the practice of going out and verifying information before they share it, Pope Francis said.
