Where he hears, listens: Pope Francis and communication

By Alessandro Gisotti

Can we communicate by listening? We live in a time when it seems that if we don’t have the last word, we have “lost” communication. It is something we see every day in television shows and in debates between politicians. We personally experience it on social networks (the most populated public markets today). Whatever the topic, if I didn’t post the last tweet or post, it may seem like we were defeated in the conversation.

Pope Francis has overturned this functionalist paradigm of communication, which considers communication to be a weapon to be used against the other. He restored his primary value: a gift, an opportunity that helps us grow with one another. The immediate consequence of this “altruistic” logic is that the communicator does not prevail over the message he wants to convey. On the contrary, the power of the message increases as the person communicating it “puts it aside.”

The speaking silence

In Pope Francis, silence and even immobility (a paradox in the age of the media, always in search of sound and movement) become amplifiers of meaning. Those of us who had the privilege of following Pope Francis’ visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 29, 2016 were touched by his silent prayer, which seemed to last an interminable period of time. This silence, more than any speech, was able to communicate suffering and dismay at the pain that that place will always hold. But, at the same time, he also communicated the need to remember, to never forget the unspeakable horror of death camps.

Four years later, another “silence speaks” in another dramatic moment in contemporary history. It is March 27, 2020: the Pope is alone, St. Peter’s Square is empty and he is praying under the wooden crucifix of St. Marcello’s Church and the icon The salvation of the Roman people. In an almost surreal context, that holiday will remain one of the strongest images of the pandemic. The next day, the photo of the Pope praying appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. His message traveled far beyond the limits of the Catholic faith, voicing the anxieties and hopes of all mankind.

The pastor’s phones

Listening is a fundamental and original component of Pope Francis’ “countercultural communication.” Not coincidentally, in this period marked by the inability to move and the drastic reduction in the number of people he meets, the Pope – with that “creativity of love” to which he frequently refers – has dedicated people for a long time through an instrument quite old communication that never goes out of style: the phone. During the months of the blockade, Pope Francis made countless appeals to the suffering, to Covid-19 patients, to the elderly and even to nurses and young people (for example, to those in the Oratory of Nembro in one of Italy’s most remote areas). affected by the virus), who rolled up their sleeves to help those in need. These phone calls made by Jorge Mario Bergoglio serve more to listen to the experiences of those on the other side, than to offer advice. “This,” he said in an interview with a Spanish magazine, “helped me feel the pulse of the way families and communities lived at the time.”

Listening therapy

On the other hand, already in 2016, Pope Francis stressed that listening “is much more than hearing” – “listening means being attentive, having the desire to understand, to value, to respect, to cherish the word of others. “During his international trip to Mexico in the same year, while talking to young people in Morelia, he said that when a friend is in trouble, it is necessary to sit next to them and listen:

What is needed, he reiterated during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, is an “apostolate of the ear.” This formula seems to echo the exhortation of St. Francis of Assisi to his brothers: “Incline the ear of your heart.”

After meeting Mother Teresa, Italian author Pier Paolo Pasolini said “where he looks, he sees”. In a way, in his capacity as a communicator, “where Pope Francis hears, he listens.” For him, listening is part of ABC sites of human relations. It takes time, it takes patience – the right time to get closer to the other person, shorten distances and overcome prejudice. It is an attitude that sometimes surprises, but which is perfectly in line with the vision of a “Church that goes forward”, of a Church as a “field hospital” – a vision that Pope Francis takes upon himself and bears witness to. “Communication,” Pope Francis wrote, “means communion and communion requires obedience.”

The power of proximity

Many wonder where the secret of the Pope’s communicative success lies, a success that remains intact almost eight years after his election. This was demonstrated, for example, by his homilies during the morning Mass, which were broadcast online during the pandemic and were followed by millions of people around the world. Perhaps the “secret” lies in the fact that it puts back the true value of communication at the center, focusing on the person rather than the means. It is a “paradoxical” power that gains power the less it is reduced to putting oneself in the service of the other: the power of proximity.

Therefore, even in communication, the Pontiff asks us to follow the model of the Good Samaritan. Not coincidentally, in his first Message for World Communications Day, he wrote that the parable of the Good Samaritan “is also a parable about communication,” because “those who communicate actually become neighbors.” With words and gestures, Pope Francis tells us daily that we must “take the risk” of communication, to take the risk for our neighbor, just as the man from Samaria did on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. For the Pope, we must not be afraid to make room for the opinions or proposals of others, or even questions and, in this way, to understand the good that each person brings. In fact, only by recognizing ourselves as brothers and sisters can we build a better future, worthy of our common humanity.