The theme of this year’s World Communications Day is summed up in the invitation to “Come and See,” Jesus’ method which has allowed to spread the Gospel up to our days. Going to see is always necessary, says Pope Francis, in any authentic communication: in journalism, on social networks, on the web. Here is what the Pontiff tells us:<\/p>\n
The invitation to \u201ccome and see\u201d, which was part of those first moving encounters of Jesus with the disciples, is also the method for all authentic human communication<\/strong>. This year, then, I would like to devote this Message to the invitation to \u201ccome and see\u201d, which can serve as an inspiration for all communication that strives to be clear and honest, in the press, on the internet, in the Church\u2019s daily preaching and in political or social communication. \u201cCome and see!\u201d \u00a0This has always been the way that the Christian faith has been communicated, from the time of those first encounters on the banks of the River Jordan and on the Sea of Galilee.<\/p>\n \u201cCome and see<\/strong>\u201d is the simplest method to get to know a situation. It is the most honest test of every message, because, in order to know, we need to encounter, to let the person in front of me speak, to let his or her testimony reach me.<\/p>\n Every tool has its value, and that great communicator who was Paul of Tarsus<\/strong> would certainly have made use of email and social messaging. Yet it was his faith, hope and charity that impressed those of his contemporaries who heard him preach or had the good fortune to spend time with him, to see him during an assembly or in individual conversation. Watching him in action wherever he was, they saw for themselves how true and fruitful for their lives was the message of salvation that, by God\u2019s grace, he had come to preach. Even where this servant of God could not be encountered personally, the disciples whom he sent bore witness to his way of life in Christ (cf.\u00a01 Cor<\/i>\u00a04:17).<\/p>\n