‘Communication is communional rather than functional,’ says Vatican official

The Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication addressed the 30 participants of the ongoing 28th annual FABC-OSC Bishops’ Meet on November 23.

Speaking on “Communication in the Church Today,” Dr. Paolo Ruffini said communication rather than functional is “communional,” allowing peoples and communities to flourish in communion.

“More than an office, communication is also a mission” that celebrates the commonality of peoples and promotes participation, he said.

“Charity, however, is the key to communication.” This is why only the human person, gifted with the “capacity to love and feeling of belongingness,” can communicate in the most profound sense.

The Second Vatican Council saw early on the importance of social communication. Attesting to this fact is the 1963 release of both Sacrosanctum Concilium Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, and the Decree Inter Mirifica on the Means of Social Communication, just over a year since the Council’s inauguration.

Prefect Ruffini then told the bishop chairmen and secretaries for social communication to “not functionalize the mission.”

“Communication is first and foremost a mutual gift of ourselves, a gift that comes from the relationship we establish with the other.”

Moreover, “communicating in charity is for everyone and not only for professionals,” the Prefect stressed.

“The first Christians were recognized for the way they loved both in word and deed. Love and compassion, in fact, were their universal language.”

“Christ Himself communicated not only with words but with His body, His way of life, and through the relationships he built.”

Further, Dr. Ruffini said that “the first ‘means of communication’ of the Gospel is thus our life transfigured by communion with God and one another.”

The Prefect reminded the bishops and clergy that evangelization differs from “selling a product.” As Christian communicators, “We are communicating life. We are sharing the beauty of an encounter,” he said.

Christian communication can only be related to life and the ‘giving of self in love,” the Prefect concluded.

Dr. Ruffini worked as a professional journalist since 1979. From 2014 to 2018, he served as director of the television station of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, TV2000. In 2018, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication in the Vatican.