杏MAP导航

By Francesca Merlo

杏MAP导航 Francis announced the theme of the next World Communications Day today: 鈥淲e are all members of one another (Eph 4:25): from network community to human communities鈥�. In an interview with Vatican News, Paolo Ruffini, the new Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication discusses what he thinks can help us shift from 鈥渘etwork community鈥� to 鈥渉uman communities鈥�.

Up to what point can we speak of real communities when we are faced with the logic that characterises some of the communities of our social networks? On the 2019 World Communications Day, 杏MAP导航 Francis once again focuses his attention on his presence on social media through his Twitter and Instagram accounts (@pontefix and @franciscus respectively)

Communities, not tribes

Ruffini underlines that 鈥渢he risk that comes with the times in which we live is that of building tribes rather than communities鈥�. The tribal logic is founded on the exclusion of others, on division, rather than on community. He said the Franciscan sprit on which 杏MAP导航 Francis partly bases his pontificate is precisely what the prayer of Saint Francis preaches: 鈥�Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon鈥︹��. Only in this way can the web of a network not be one that traps you, but one that becomes a tool of freedom 鈥� acquiring its truest and more beautiful meaning.

Envy and resentment are destructive

Young people have always searched for moments and places in which they can be brought together. The 鈥榥etwork community鈥� helps young people be particularly accessible, even if it is in a virtual dimension. Though 鈥渢he web they seek is one of people and not one of threads鈥� but, as Ruffini says 鈥渋f the network community that we offer is formed on envy and resentment, then what are we doing? We are destroying both their future and ours.鈥�

Therefore, even if it is lived in a virtual dimension through the tools of technological and digital communication, it is important to pass from network communities founded on phony relationships and fake friendships to 鈥渢he beauty and also the hard work that comes with the truth of an encounter鈥�, he said.

 Truth is freedom

鈥淲hat are young people looking for? They are looking for freedom, but only the truth can set them free.鈥� In the words of Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication.