Learn to listen, Pope urges in statement for World Communications Day
January 24, 2022
» Continue to this story on Vatican Press Office
CWN Editor's Note: Pope Francis lamented that “we are losing our ability to listen,” in his message for the 56th annual World Communications Day.
The Pope remarked that among the five senses, “the one favored by God seems to be hearing.” He receive the faith by listening, he said. And in fact God takes the initiative when He speaks to us; “we respond by listening to him.”
Genuine listening, the Pontiff continued, involves caring about the other’s opinion, and is quite unlike “eavesdropping.” He called attention to the frequent complaints that people “talk past one another.”
“Communication does not take place if listening has not taken place,” the Pope said. He added that “there is no good journalism without the ability to listen.”
At the conclusion of his statement the Pope called attention to the preparations for the Synod on Synodality, emphasizing the importance of listening to the faithful.
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