VATICAN: Jubilee, We Are The Stories we share, Vatican Prefect Tells Sisters
Section of religious
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
At a conference that aimed to inspire and enhance the communication efforts of Religious nuns on how they “fan the flame of hope in today’s world,” the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication Dr. Paolo Ruffini underscored that everything highlights how communication is essential in intertwining the threads of life.
He was speaking on Thursday, January 23, during the Sisters’ side event of the Jubilee of the World of Communications at the Vatican Apostolic Library.
Expressing the need to share stories of hope, which builds community and unify the people, the Prefect said, “We really are the stories we share. We can narrate one another stories of love and compassion or stories of hate and division. But all of us, in one way or another, know that at the very end, we are one.”
Since we are all members of the same family, sons, and daughters of the only God people should not be marginalized. In this case, the Prefect stresses that “Communication is what can make us realize that this is not a way of saying, but a way of better living. It is communication that can unite or divide us.”
Dr. Ruffini shares the source of communication and reflects that the early Christians were recognized because of the love they shared. He stresses further that communication is a gift and should be freely shared.
“If we look at our history from a Christian perspective, if we go back to the early Christians, we rediscover that love was their first source of communication. They were recognized because they loved each other. Love and compassion were their universal language,” he said.
The Prefect further added while addressing the sisters and other invited participants, “If we look at the Latin root of the word ‘communication’, we can see that it combines two other words cum, together, and munus, gift. This tells us that communication is first and foremost a reciprocal gift of ourselves, a gift that stems from the relationship of trust that we establish with the other.”
Aware that communication has continually evolved due to inventions and technological advancements from the printing press to the radio, the camera, and the movie camera, to the digital age of the Internet, social media, new platforms, and Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Ruffini notes that Sisters can shape communication.
“Today, we are at a change of era. We have in our hands the ability to shape the future. We have the chance to weave the communion that unites us every day,” he said.
Remember he continued, “We can also squander this opportunity. Communication can be the good soil where good fruit is born or the desert where everything is doomed to die.”
The sisters were challenged to reflect on the life of future communication and how it can bring unity among the people.
“We could say, that Communion among us is actually the most powerful means of communication that the Church has. There is no communication without communion. And there is no communion if there is no communication,” shared the Vatican Prefect of Communication.
In relation to strengthening communion through communication and believing that we need something that transcends us, Ruffini acknowledged the presence of women and religious nuns in the field of communication.
“Our dream is to find together new and creative ways to witness a different way of living and to design a new way of communicating,” he said and added, “New yet ancient, based on gift rather than consumption; on gratuitousness rather than price; on sharing rather than exclusion.”
By working collectively, the sisters can achieve communication goals and overcome challenges that might be impossible individually. As believers are called to evangelize the Word of God, Dr. Ruffini says it is possible through collective efforts to make the joy of the Gospel contagious.
“It is up to us to embody in the digital world the spirit of Pentecost. Even when it seems impossible, we know that is possible. We know that together we are the hope we are looking for, we are the good soil, and we are the platform where to share the good and the beauty.”
Additionally, he said “It is not a matter of technology since we already have it and it evolves rapidly, but it comes later. It has to be guided by us. Let us not be discouraged.”
