At 12:30pm today (6:30am EST), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the Staff members and friends of Telepace on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of their institution's foundation.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet you with affection and I thank Father Guido Todeschini for his introductory words. Telepace has just concluded a number of initiatives on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary. It was a year of special gratitude to God and reflection on your professional service. In fact, even the tools of communication are a gift from God: they "have entailed a broadening of horizons for many people. This is a gift from God, and it is also a great responsibility. I like to define this power of communication as 'proximity' ... A proximity that takes care, comforts, heals, accompanies and celebrates (Message for the 50th World Communications Day, January 24, 2016).
Telepace has always stood out for its vocation to proximity and for its authentic service to God and to man in the Church, as your motto reads. It is in this context that the choice should be read, from the beginning, not to accept any kind of advertising and to accept only free offers. As for the first Christians, there is a total entrustment to Providence, which rests on Jesus' invitation: Seek first of all the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be given to you (Mt 6:33).
Telepace was born small and limited to a few Italian provinces, with a precise objective: to be the voice of those who have no voice. I encourage you to continue to pursue this effort. Especially in the current time, in which the culture of waste leaves more and more people with no voice. In 1990, at the wish of Saint John Paul II, the Rome office of Telepace was opened: the Wednesday audience, the Angelus, the Rosary and the Pope's celebrations are broadcast fully and directly in every house. This has nurtured a great relationship of affection with the See of Peter, which is also linked to the Cenacolo Maria Stella dell'Evangelizzazione.
Therefore, I am happy to share this moment of celebration of your anniversary with you. It is not an end in itself, but an opportunity to renew the commitment undertaken forty years ago. For this, I would like to briefly entrust you with three commitments.
The first one: to be antennas of spirituality. The image of the antenna is always beautiful and eloquent in its dual function of emitting and receiving a signal. Telepace, as a radio and television channel, is an expert in this communication process. It is up to you to know how to recognize the spiritual signs of the Father's merciful love in everything that happens. "Even today it is the Spirit who sows in us the desire of the Kingdom, through many 'living channels', through the people who allow themselves to be led by the Good News in the midst of the drama of history (Message for the 51st World Communications Day, 24 January 2017). In your profession you can be living channels of spirituality between God and all your listeners and viewers: above all the poor, the least and the excluded. Never forget them, the poor next door! Continue to stand beside prisoners, those who are condemned to death - this is bad, but still there is the death penalty - like when you went to death row in Texas, where you accompanied and attended to two young people even to the gallows, after having comforted them with the Sacraments. This is the spirituality of charity!
The second commitment: to educate young people in the school of the Gospel. One of the issues that emerged from the recent Synodal Assembly, which was dedicated to young people, concerns precisely their relationship with the Church. In the Final Document we read: All young people, no one excluded, are in the heart of God and therefore also in the heart of the Church. However, we recognize frankly that this affirmation that resonates on our lips is not always a real expression in our pastoral action ... Yet the Gospel asks us to dare and we want to do it without presumption and without proselytizing, bearing witness to the love of the Lord and holding out his hand to all the young people of the world (Final Document, 117). How I would like the media to pay more attention to young people, not only by recounting their failures but also their dreams and their hopes! The Gospel of joy calls us to an educational commitment that can no longer be postponed. Educating young people in the school of the Gospel means, above all, being witnesses of the only Word that saves. Your communication is outgoing, it must always engage people in dialogue and, even more, it must listen to young people. Let us remember: the Gospel asks us to dare!
The third commitment: being storytellers who do not fall into gossip. Communication is not just transmission of news: it is availability, mutual enrichment, relationship. Unfortunately, a form of communication that has nothing to do with attention to one another and with mutual understanding continues to be widespread: this form is called gossip. It is a malpractice that undermines the human community every day, sowing envy, jealousy and lust for power. You can even kill a person with this weapon, either by grasping it, or by building up gossip, or by passing it on by listening to it, prolonging its life of lies and delations. It is important, therefore, to communicate responsibly, also thinking about how much bad you can spread with language, with chatter, with gossip. I renew therefore, my invitation to promote a journalism of peace, ... a journalism made by people for people, which is understood as a service for all people, especially those - who represent the majority in the world - who do not have a voice, ... a journalism committed to indicating alternative solutions to the escalation of clamour and verbal violence (Message for the 52nd World Communications Day, 24 January 2018).
May the Lord help you never to betray the goal you carry in the name: Tele-pace. To always be a television of peace, which is a gift from God and a humble and constant conquest of humanity. Your logo is the dove that carries an olive branch in its beak. I wish you every day to be doves of peace and to fly in the ether with the two wings of prayer and charity.
Dear friends, in a few days we will celebrate Christmas. Let us prepare ourselves for this great Mystery in silence: let the Child speak; let us allow his gaze, poor and helpless, to penetrate our hearts and with his tenderness, may he make us channels of peace. I thank you for your visit, I bless you and your families, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you!
(Original text in Italian)
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the meeting with friends of Telepace
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet you with affection and I thank Father Guido Todeschini for his introductory words. Telepace has just concluded a number of initiatives on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary. It was a year of special gratitude to God and reflection on your professional service. In fact, even the tools of communication are a gift from God: they "have entailed a broadening of horizons for many people. This is a gift from God, and it is also a great responsibility. I like to define this power of communication as 'proximity' ... A proximity that takes care, comforts, heals, accompanies and celebrates (Message for the 50th World Communications Day, January 24, 2016).
Telepace has always stood out for its vocation to proximity and for its authentic service to God and to man in the Church, as your motto reads. It is in this context that the choice should be read, from the beginning, not to accept any kind of advertising and to accept only free offers. As for the first Christians, there is a total entrustment to Providence, which rests on Jesus' invitation: Seek first of all the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be given to you (Mt 6:33).
Telepace was born small and limited to a few Italian provinces, with a precise objective: to be the voice of those who have no voice. I encourage you to continue to pursue this effort. Especially in the current time, in which the culture of waste leaves more and more people with no voice. In 1990, at the wish of Saint John Paul II, the Rome office of Telepace was opened: the Wednesday audience, the Angelus, the Rosary and the Pope's celebrations are broadcast fully and directly in every house. This has nurtured a great relationship of affection with the See of Peter, which is also linked to the Cenacolo Maria Stella dell'Evangelizzazione.
Therefore, I am happy to share this moment of celebration of your anniversary with you. It is not an end in itself, but an opportunity to renew the commitment undertaken forty years ago. For this, I would like to briefly entrust you with three commitments.
The first one: to be antennas of spirituality. The image of the antenna is always beautiful and eloquent in its dual function of emitting and receiving a signal. Telepace, as a radio and television channel, is an expert in this communication process. It is up to you to know how to recognize the spiritual signs of the Father's merciful love in everything that happens. "Even today it is the Spirit who sows in us the desire of the Kingdom, through many 'living channels', through the people who allow themselves to be led by the Good News in the midst of the drama of history (Message for the 51st World Communications Day, 24 January 2017). In your profession you can be living channels of spirituality between God and all your listeners and viewers: above all the poor, the least and the excluded. Never forget them, the poor next door! Continue to stand beside prisoners, those who are condemned to death - this is bad, but still there is the death penalty - like when you went to death row in Texas, where you accompanied and attended to two young people even to the gallows, after having comforted them with the Sacraments. This is the spirituality of charity!
The second commitment: to educate young people in the school of the Gospel. One of the issues that emerged from the recent Synodal Assembly, which was dedicated to young people, concerns precisely their relationship with the Church. In the Final Document we read: All young people, no one excluded, are in the heart of God and therefore also in the heart of the Church. However, we recognize frankly that this affirmation that resonates on our lips is not always a real expression in our pastoral action ... Yet the Gospel asks us to dare and we want to do it without presumption and without proselytizing, bearing witness to the love of the Lord and holding out his hand to all the young people of the world (Final Document, 117). How I would like the media to pay more attention to young people, not only by recounting their failures but also their dreams and their hopes! The Gospel of joy calls us to an educational commitment that can no longer be postponed. Educating young people in the school of the Gospel means, above all, being witnesses of the only Word that saves. Your communication is outgoing, it must always engage people in dialogue and, even more, it must listen to young people. Let us remember: the Gospel asks us to dare!
The third commitment: being storytellers who do not fall into gossip. Communication is not just transmission of news: it is availability, mutual enrichment, relationship. Unfortunately, a form of communication that has nothing to do with attention to one another and with mutual understanding continues to be widespread: this form is called gossip. It is a malpractice that undermines the human community every day, sowing envy, jealousy and lust for power. You can even kill a person with this weapon, either by grasping it, or by building up gossip, or by passing it on by listening to it, prolonging its life of lies and delations. It is important, therefore, to communicate responsibly, also thinking about how much bad you can spread with language, with chatter, with gossip. I renew therefore, my invitation to promote a journalism of peace, ... a journalism made by people for people, which is understood as a service for all people, especially those - who represent the majority in the world - who do not have a voice, ... a journalism committed to indicating alternative solutions to the escalation of clamour and verbal violence (Message for the 52nd World Communications Day, 24 January 2018).
May the Lord help you never to betray the goal you carry in the name: Tele-pace. To always be a television of peace, which is a gift from God and a humble and constant conquest of humanity. Your logo is the dove that carries an olive branch in its beak. I wish you every day to be doves of peace and to fly in the ether with the two wings of prayer and charity.
Dear friends, in a few days we will celebrate Christmas. Let us prepare ourselves for this great Mystery in silence: let the Child speak; let us allow his gaze, poor and helpless, to penetrate our hearts and with his tenderness, may he make us channels of peace. I thank you for your visit, I bless you and your families, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you!
(Original text in Italian)
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