Communications Week: Pope Urges Leaders, Followers, To Imbibe Spirit Of Listening

As the Catholic church celebrates its Communications Week, Pope Francis has urged those in positions of authority and followers to cultivate the habit of listening, which he said is essential in communication.

The Holy Father said this in a message he released to commemorate this year’s Communications week and read by the National Director Social Communication, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Reverend Father Michael Umoh.

The Pope, in the message, said the world is losing the ability to listen to those in front of them, both in the normal course of every day relationships and when debating the most important issues of civil life.

“From the pages of scripture, we learn that listening means not only the perception of sound but is essentially linked to the dialogical relationship between God and humanity. “Shema’ Israel – Hear, O Israel” (Dt 6:4), the opening words of the first commandment of the Torah, is continually reiterated in the Bible, to the point that Saint Paul would affirm that “faith comes through listening”

“The initiative, in fact, is God’s, who speaks to us, and to whom we respond by listening to him. In the end, even this listening comes from his grace, as is the case with the newborn child who responds to the gaze and the voice of his or her mother and father.

“Among the five senses, the one favoured by God seems to be hearing, perhaps because it is less invasive, more discreet than sight, and therefore leaves the human being freer.” He said.

He said human beings tend to flee the relationship, to turn their back and “close their ears” so they do not have to listen. The catholic church leader further stated that refusal to listen often ends up turning into aggression towards the other, as happened to those listening to the deacon Stephen who, covering their ears, all turned on him at once.

He said the ability to listen to society is more valuable than ever in this time wounded by the long pandemic. Pope Francis said much previously accumulated mistrust towards “official information” has also caused an “info Demic”, within which the world of information is increasingly struggling to be credible and transparent.

“We need to lend an ear and listen profoundly, especially to the social unease heightened by the downturn or cessation of many economic activities”, he added.

He advised Christians that there is a great need to listen to and to hear one another. He said it is the most precious and life-giving gift we can offer each other.

Speaking after Mass to commemorate the Communications Week, the Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Reverend Father Zacharia Samjumi said the special emphasis on communication week is to help reflect more on the vitality of means of communication.

“We realise that we are humans, that which brings us together and binds us together is actually a way of communicating with one another.

“So, for that reason, we like to emphasise that. That is what we celebrated throughout the whole week, we want to pay special attention to the way we touch ourselves which means how we dialogue with other people., so we should pay special attention to that and see that we are able to make meaning by the way we live.

“We urge journalists that we must not relent, we must constantly communicate so that others will listen, and by listening, we will come to understand one another”, he said.

Also, Reverend Father Umoh said listening as human action is important to democracy.

He said what is going on at the moment with the primary election is disheartening and still boils down to the fact that Nigerians are not listening, and politicians are not listening to the people.