On Monday, May 12, 2025, the Holy Father Leo XIV met with representatives of the media from around the world who “have been in Rome these past few weeks to report on the Church, her diversity and, with her, her unity.”
In his address to them, he expressed gratitude for their service to the truth and also said these words:
“We are living in difficult times to navigate and describe, which represent a challenge for all of us, from which we must not shy away. On the contrary, they ask each of us, in our various responsibilities and services, never to yield to mediocrity. The Church must accept the challenge of time, and in the same way, communication and journalism cannot exist outside of time and history.”
We at Scala News, and together with us, all those responsible for communicating our Redemptorist missionary life from the farthest corners of the world, feel we are recipients of this message from the Pope.
We receive it as a challenge and a commitment that we must fulfill through our Alphonsian charism. We remember that “the saint of the pen” did not write only for those around him but also invited us to live this mission with the power of the Spirit that has driven him to preach abundant redemption.
That is why we identify with these words of Leo XIV: “Thank you for all you have done to abandon the stereotypes and commonplaces through which we often read Christian life and the life of the Church itself. Thank you because you have managed to perceive the essence of what we are and transmit it to the entire world through the various media.”
The Holy Father’s full address to media representatives can be read here.
We, the Redemptorist missionaries, through all the small messages we receive for publication in Scala News, also seek, as the Holy Father says, to “promote a communication capable of leading us out of the ‘Tower of Babel’ in which we sometimes find ourselves, out of the confusion of loveless, often ideological and factional language. Therefore, your service, with the words you use and the style you adopt, is important. Communication, in fact, is not only the transmission of information, but the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that are spaces for dialogue and contrast.”
Faced with this message, we have no alternative but to accept what the Pope tells us about what lies before us in the immediate future:
In his words: “And, considering technological evolution, this mission becomes even more necessary. I am thinking, particularly, of artificial intelligence with its immense potential, which requires, however, responsibility and discernment to orient its instruments toward the good of all, so that they can produce benefits for humanity. And this responsibility concerns us all, according to age and social roles.”
We could almost add in an internal discourse:
We will have to fulfill this mission with the responsibility of remembering that we are formers of conscience, teachers of that hope that opens the heart and leads to God, that our Alphonsian charism invites us to communicate and train us to distinguish good from evil, to use a language that can reach the people of our country, to respond faithfully to our charism in fidelity to the signs of the times.
Dear Pope Leo XIV, we accept your invitation to “Disarm communication of all prejudice, resentment, fanaticism, and hatred; let us purify it of aggression. Strident, forceful communication is of no use, but rather a communication capable of listening, of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice. Let us disarm words and we will contribute to disarming the earth. Disarmed and disarming communication allows us to share a different view of the world and to act in a manner consistent with our human dignity.”
Under your guidance, we will remain committed to the silent work of many for a better world.
Carlos Espinoza, Scala News
