The act of communication has never been neutral. It shapes the world it describes. In every age, the way we speak to one another forms the ground on which we either stand together or fall apart. Today, the field of communication is fractured. Channels once built for connection have become corridors of suspicion. Information, once shared to promote understanding, is now often filtered, distorted or commodified to serve only a few. Whole communities find themselves at the mercy of systems designed not to nourish attention but to scatter it, fragmenting our grasp of truth and our sense of belonging.
Pope Francis, in his final message for World Communications Day, warned of a culture where communication becomes a weapon: fuelled by fear, marked by aggression, and shaped by the desire to dominate. He named the risk of entering into exchange with others not to understand, but to control; not to heal, but to harden. He saw clearly the pattern that emerges when communication reduces reality to caricature, when nuance is erased in favour of performance, and when disagreement becomes grounds for dehumanisation [1].
Pope Leo XIV, in his own message to media professionals, echoed this concern. He spoke of a world lost in a “confusion of loveless languages,” in which speech often emerges from ideology, not encounter. He urged a turning away from the “war of words and images,” and described communication as a vocation that must resist the culture of conquest [2].
To speak truth in such a time requires an inner clarity. The vision Pope Francis left behind remains clear: communication that is grounded in hope, carried with gentleness, and offered in reverence. This is not a matter of tone alone. It is a discipline of presence. The communicator who brings hope into view does so not by persuasion or cleverness, but by living in fidelity to the message itself. In the Gospel spirit, the communicator becomes a witness to the possibility of communion, even in a fractured world.
Hope, in this context, is not something displayed. It is something carried. It is not a strategy for motivation or uplift. It is a way of proceeding. Pope Francis described it as “performative”, a word that reminds us that hope is made real only when it is acted upon [1]. It does not insist on recognition. It persists. It endures. It waits through misunderstanding. For the Christian, hope finds its shape in the face of the risen Christ, and its rhythm in the quiet courage of those who speak even when the response is silence.
Hope speaks with gentleness, because gentleness listens. It makes space. It does not push past the other, nor overwhelm them. Pope Francis returned often to the image found in the First Letter of Peter: the call to speak of hope “with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet 3:15-16) [1].. Gentleness here is not weakness. It is steadiness. It is a refusal to shout when the moment calls for stillness. It is the wisdom to know that the heart opens only when it feels seen.
Pope Leo XIV deepened this vision. He invited communicators to recover the courage of humility, the kind that lets go of the need to win arguments or dominate narratives. He described the communicator’s task as one of love: truthful, clear-eyed, and patient [2]. To speak in this way is to remember that every word forms part of the world we are making together.
That world must be built with care. Communication cannot exist only to inform. It must also form. It must shape the cultures in which human dignity is either honoured or denied. Pope Francis drew attention to the responsibility this entails, particularly in the age of artificial intelligence, where messages are often generated without discernment and amplified without accountability. He called for discernment that places the good of all before the needs of a few, and for a renewed commitment to freedom of expression that protects the vulnerable and allows communities to make informed choices [1].
Care is not sentiment. It is attention made visible. It means taking seriously how stories are told, how people are named, and how suffering is acknowledged. It means standing with those whose voices are silenced. Pope Leo XIV spoke of the dignity of the communicator who dares to speak with truthfulness in the face of injustice and cliché [2]. Such speech does not entertain. It liberates.
Yet this is not a solitary vocation. Communication, when it is faithful, draws people into communion. The work of telling stories becomes a way of healing the loneliness that pervades modern life. The act of listening becomes an act of honouring the other’s existence. Pope Francis once said that every communicator is called to become a “gold prospector”, one who seeks out the hidden good, the overlooked truth, the signs of renewal already present in the world [1].
These signs are not always obvious. They rarely dominate headlines. But they matter. A single story of solidarity, honestly told, can awaken a sense of common humanity in someone who thought themselves alone. A word spoken with reverence can break the cycle of blame. When we find and share these stories, we do more than inform. We help remember. We help communities see themselves again. We help people believe that the present is not the end of the story.
Pope Leo XIV, audience with media professionals during the first week of his Papacy, offered a final encouragement: that we disarm our words, and in doing so, help disarm the world [2].. To disarm words is not to empty them. It is to free them from the weight of hostility. It is to choose peace in the very grammar of our lives.
The vocation of communication remains constant. To speak with hope. To walk with gentleness. To live with reverence. To become, not simply conveyors of messages, but companions on the way; pilgrims of hope, lighting the road by the way we speak.
Sources
[1] Pope Francis, Communicating Hope with Gentleness and Reverence (Message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications), Vatican, 2025. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/documents/20250124-messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html
[2] Pope Leo XIV, Message for World Communications Day 2025, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. https://www.cbcew.org.uk/pope-leo-world-communications-day-2025