"Check the effectiveness of your work and focus on creativity."
Two important recommendations emerged from Pope Francis' visit to the working headquarters of the Dicastery for Communication this Monday, on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of L'Osservatore Romano and the 90th anniversary of Vatican Radio. Although they are specifically addressed to the entire media system of the Holy See, they apply to all those engaged in Church Communication and the transmission of the Gospel at all levels and by all means.
Are we effective?
The first recommendation, which stems fundamentally from a concern, was made by the Pope on the microphones of Vatican Radio, live from Regia 9, in the presence of the head of the station and the editor-in-chief. The Pope suggested that we should always ask ourselves about the effectiveness of the message we are trying to convey. More specifically: How many people does it reach?
Because the risk is that of having a nice organization, a nice structure, which by the way also invests a lot of money - which comes out of the offerings of the faithful - and the result is not so significant from the point of view of productivity and efficiency, to use a business metaphor.
The Pope used the image of the mountain that gives birth to the mouse, from a famous popular saying, to say that the danger is to invest a lot in "infrastructures", with an enormous expenditure of energy at all levels, and then not to calibrate all this investment on the true objective of the organization itself, which for the Holy See is to bring the message of Jesus to as many people as possible.
Beware of functionalism
The second recommendation, linked to the previous one, was made by the Pontiff when he greeted the editors in the Sala Marconi of Palazzo Pio, which is located at the beginning of Via della Conciliazione and where for some months now all the departments dealing with Vatican communications have been meeting, as the conclusion of a process of reform - essentially of the structures - begun in the first months of the pontificate.
After visiting the new premises and new locations, the Pope warned against the risk of functionalism, "the great enemy of good functioning. In short, we must be careful not to entrust everything to procedures and assignments, so as not to stifle people's creativity. For the work to work, "everyone must have enough freedom to function". And this is expressed in the "ability to take risks", without having to constantly submit to a rigmarole of requests for "permission" (granted by superiors).
The Pope's two reminders, as we said, are also useful for all those who dedicate themselves to evangelization through the media and, in a particular way, in the service of the ecclesial institution.
To always verify the fruits of one's own work, in order to improve those aspects that can also limit the waste of resources; to bet on creativity, without falling into useless burdens that would extinguish -duish, kill, to use the Pope's words- any hint of audacity in the service of spreading the Kingdom of God in this world.
