By Pope Leo XIV exhorted journalists to fact-check the news and show the true face of war.
When reporting on today’s “dramatic circumstances of war,” the Holy Father urged news professionals to verify the news “so as not to become a mouthpiece for those in power,” a task that is “even more urgent and delicate — I would say essential.”He also emphasized that journalists must report on the suffering that war inflicts upon the population as well as reveal its human face and relate it “through the eyes of the victims, so as not to transform it into a video game.”
“It is not easy in the few minutes of a news program and its in-depth segments. But this is the challenge,” he told members of the Italian broadcaster RAI and the editorial team of its TG2 news program on March 16, on the occasion of the outlet’s 50th anniversary.
No technological innovation can replace creativity, critical discernment, and freedom of thought.
Pope Leo XIV
In his address, the pope also reflected on the challenges that television journalism has faced, such as the transition from analog to digital systems. In this context, he noted that “no technological innovation can replace creativity, critical discernment, and freedom of thought.”
The Holy Father addressed the “challenge of our time” — artificial intelligence — and underscored the need “to regulate communication according to the human paradigm and not the technological one,” something that, in his view, means “knowing how to distinguish between means and ends.”
He also highlighted laicity and pluralism as the traits that have characterized the Italian network. Specifically, he referred to laicity as “a rejection of ideological preconceptions and as an open-minded view of reality.”
“We all know how difficult it is to allow ourselves to be surprised by facts, by encounters, by the gazes and voices of others; how strong the temptation is to seek out, see, and listen only to what confirms our own opinions. But there can be no good communication, nor true freedom and healthy pluralism, without this openness,” he emphasized.
Finally, he invited journalists to promote diversity — animated by a spirit of friendship — “in an age dominated by polarization, ideological closed-mindedness, and slogans that prevent us from seeing and understanding the complexity of reality.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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Journalists are bridge-builders. They give voice to the voiceless. May they be blessed with joy and happiness as they humbly toil to protect, defend, promote, and enhance human dignity through their noble profession and challenging mission.
War is not a video game. Neither is it a movie. The videos put out by Secretary of War (Defense) Hegseth seem to have a rather adolescent view of war. To paraphrase Churchill, it is blood, sweat, toil and tears. It might be wise for our male model Secretary to get serious and knock off the phony, macho nonsense.
Very good observations and critiques are here presented by Papa Leo.
“Finally, he invited journalists to promote diversity — animated by a spirit of friendship — “in an age dominated by polarization, ideological closed-mindedness, and slogans that prevent us from seeing and understanding the complexity of reality.””
An excellent rebuke of much Western/Israeli “journalism” about the Iran War.