This morning, the Holy See Press Centre released the text of a Message which the Holy Father, Pope Francis sent to the Director of the Italian Episcopal (Bishops') Conference's Information Agency, Doctor Vincenzo Corrado. The Information Agency, known as SIR, is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its foundation.
To Doctor Vincenzo Cornado
Italian Episcopal Conference
Dear friends of the SIR Agency,
I am pleased to send you this short message on the occasion of an important anniversary of your newspaper. During these particular days - 25 October - remember the thirty years that have passed since the first edition of your publication was published, and the beginning of the journalistic activity of the SIR. This is an important year for all of you and for this reason, I wish you well and I send you a special remembrance for the professional activities you accomplish every day.
Thirty years certainly represent a good milestone, but they are not and should not be considered a point of arrival. Continue to carry out your commitment, always looking for the same novelty with which the founding fathers thought and then, give shape to a unique project of its kind: an information tool that connects the Italian territory, represented by the diocesan weeklies, which are your focus and which, at the same time, return from your work to their respective territories under the care of their respective diocesan leaders. You have been advocates of communion in information, both ecclesial and socio-cultural. Keep it up!
The SIR, the information agency of the Italian Episcopal Conference, responds to the needs of different communities. With your daily newsletter, people can find news concerning the Holy See, the Italian Church, the dioceses, Europe, the Middle East, the whole world ... Now, as you know, I decided to dedicate to the LIII World Day of Social Communications, which will be celebrated in 2019, the theme We are members of one another (Eph 4:25) From community to community I know that you in turn are committed to promoting an informative community, founded on authenticity and reciprocity.
Over the years, you have followed technological developments, always maintaining the editorial line that was so well expressed in 1988 by your late president, Monsignor Giuseppe Cacciami: We would like to be judged and tested on objectivity, rigor of language, documentation, on the attention we have paid to the causes and the implications of the religious event rather than on its instrumental, brilliant and ephemeral use for the curiosity of the moment. This aim still merits your attention: just think of the phenomenon of false news, the so-called fake news. Continue to practice your profession while always keeping to the truth. It is the most effective antidote with which to combat falsehood. And remember that to discern the truth it is necessary to examine what accompanies communion and promotes goodness and what, on the contrary, tends to isolate, divide and oppose (cf Saint Paul VI, Message for the 1st World Day of Social Communications).
Thirty years are many, but this is the moment to think about the future. I encourage you to continue on the path of innovation, but not turning your gaze from all the territories: Italians, Europeans, the Middle East, international ... The territory is not a simple geographical border, it is something more: it indicates the existence of people that inhabit it. In the wake of the diocesan weeklies, give voices to those who have no voice. Keep turning your information lights toward all the suburbs. Make yourselves communicate with the stories you tell. Get more passionate about the truth. Be custodians of the news. Journalism, in the contemporary world, is not just a trade, but a real mission. It has the task, in the frenzy of the news and in the whirlwind of the scoops, to remember that at the centre of the news there is not the speed in giving it and the impact on the audience, but the people. To inform is to form, is to deal with the life of the people (cf Message for the 1st World Day of Social Communications).
Dear friends, I accompany you in your work, I hope that you will always be ready to listen and to enter into sincere dialogue in order to let the truth emerge. I encourage you to focus more and more on the fullness of quality information that can build bridges of understanding and dialogue. Walk, as you have done so far, on the beautiful and tiring paths of thinking, not compromising with anyone. Be free and far from reductive models. Help people to understand the facts in their complexity and their deep meaning.
With all my heart, I bless you and, please, don't forget to pray for me.
From the Vatican
21 October 2018
Francis
Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis
To Doctor Vincenzo Cornado
Italian Episcopal Conference
Dear friends of the SIR Agency,
I am pleased to send you this short message on the occasion of an important anniversary of your newspaper. During these particular days - 25 October - remember the thirty years that have passed since the first edition of your publication was published, and the beginning of the journalistic activity of the SIR. This is an important year for all of you and for this reason, I wish you well and I send you a special remembrance for the professional activities you accomplish every day.
Thirty years certainly represent a good milestone, but they are not and should not be considered a point of arrival. Continue to carry out your commitment, always looking for the same novelty with which the founding fathers thought and then, give shape to a unique project of its kind: an information tool that connects the Italian territory, represented by the diocesan weeklies, which are your focus and which, at the same time, return from your work to their respective territories under the care of their respective diocesan leaders. You have been advocates of communion in information, both ecclesial and socio-cultural. Keep it up!
The SIR, the information agency of the Italian Episcopal Conference, responds to the needs of different communities. With your daily newsletter, people can find news concerning the Holy See, the Italian Church, the dioceses, Europe, the Middle East, the whole world ... Now, as you know, I decided to dedicate to the LIII World Day of Social Communications, which will be celebrated in 2019, the theme We are members of one another (Eph 4:25) From community to community I know that you in turn are committed to promoting an informative community, founded on authenticity and reciprocity.
Over the years, you have followed technological developments, always maintaining the editorial line that was so well expressed in 1988 by your late president, Monsignor Giuseppe Cacciami: We would like to be judged and tested on objectivity, rigor of language, documentation, on the attention we have paid to the causes and the implications of the religious event rather than on its instrumental, brilliant and ephemeral use for the curiosity of the moment. This aim still merits your attention: just think of the phenomenon of false news, the so-called fake news. Continue to practice your profession while always keeping to the truth. It is the most effective antidote with which to combat falsehood. And remember that to discern the truth it is necessary to examine what accompanies communion and promotes goodness and what, on the contrary, tends to isolate, divide and oppose (cf Saint Paul VI, Message for the 1st World Day of Social Communications).
Thirty years are many, but this is the moment to think about the future. I encourage you to continue on the path of innovation, but not turning your gaze from all the territories: Italians, Europeans, the Middle East, international ... The territory is not a simple geographical border, it is something more: it indicates the existence of people that inhabit it. In the wake of the diocesan weeklies, give voices to those who have no voice. Keep turning your information lights toward all the suburbs. Make yourselves communicate with the stories you tell. Get more passionate about the truth. Be custodians of the news. Journalism, in the contemporary world, is not just a trade, but a real mission. It has the task, in the frenzy of the news and in the whirlwind of the scoops, to remember that at the centre of the news there is not the speed in giving it and the impact on the audience, but the people. To inform is to form, is to deal with the life of the people (cf Message for the 1st World Day of Social Communications).
Dear friends, I accompany you in your work, I hope that you will always be ready to listen and to enter into sincere dialogue in order to let the truth emerge. I encourage you to focus more and more on the fullness of quality information that can build bridges of understanding and dialogue. Walk, as you have done so far, on the beautiful and tiring paths of thinking, not compromising with anyone. Be free and far from reductive models. Help people to understand the facts in their complexity and their deep meaning.
With all my heart, I bless you and, please, don't forget to pray for me.
From the Vatican
21 October 2018
Francis
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