10.03.2023
A web workshop on Communication and Synodality made participants experience listening, silence, witnessing and sharing, for a synodal journey of communicators.
Source:: Città Nuova
“Communicative dynamics are constitutive of the life and mission of the Church, because a synodal Church is essentially a Church of communion, which becomes real when there is communication of the gifts of which each one is the bearer, in favor of the common good. The synodal Church is mission, and mission becomes effective when there is real communication of the gift of which the ecclesial community is the custodian.” Piero Coda, secretary of the International Theological Commission, opened Thursday evening with a video talk the web/lab entitled What Communication for Synodality?
An original workshop aimed at journalists, communicators, teachers and students promoted by NetOne, the Dicastery for Communication, the General Secretariat of the synod, Vatican news, Sir Servizio informazione religiosa, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, WeCa Associazione WebCattolici Italiani, Città Nuova publishing group.
Using the method of conversation in the spirit, based on deep, active and empathetic listening and silence that leaves room for the action of the Holy Spirit, numerous experts and witnesses gave life to a constructive dialogue that was modelled after the work of the first session of the synod on synodality, including silent pauses. As Pope Francis had explained last fall, it is the Holy Spirit who is the protagonist of the synod, leading to the harmony of all differences. A harmony that is not synthesis, but made of bonds of communion.
Thierry Bonaventura, communication manager of the General Secretariat of the Synod; Msgr. Brendan Leahy, member bishop of the Synodal Assembly; Isabel Gatti, international coordinator of NetOne; Msgr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz, secretary of the Dicastery for Communication; Giovanni Tridente, director of Communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross; and Liliane Mugombozi, journalist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, spoke. In a video, Enrico Selleri of Tv2000 and Radio InBlu2000 also spoke. Fabio Bolzetta, president of the Association of Italian WebCatholics (WECA), and Sara Fornaro, web editor-in-chief of Città Nuova magazine, moderated the event.
The March 7 event was a public stage of a journey that began a year ago thanks to an intuition of the Focolare Movement’s NetOne network of communicators, which initiated an increasingly shared synodal journey in which everyone is responsible and promoter. All are called. All witnesses.
There have been monthly meetings, listening, sharing with increasingly participants and witnesses. Now, however, the network is widening and the journey continues. Journalists, communicators, scholars and communication students who want to participate can write to net4synodcom@gmail.com or follow the Synodal Communication Network Facebook page.
Sara Fornaro
