M L Satyan
Coimbatore , Jan. 8, 2025: World Communication Day takes place each year on the Sunday before Pentecost, and is the only worldwide celebration called for by the Second Vatican Council in the 1963 document “Inter Mirifica.”
In one his communications Pope Francis said, “We are called to communicate with everyone without exception, adding that the Church has a special task, in her words and actions, of conveying mercy and touching people’s hearts.”
“Communication also has the power to build bridges between both individuals and groups, as well as foster an environment of inclusion in society”, he said, explaining that this is possible in both the material and the digital world.
In 2024, the Pope gave a message on World Communication Day: “Let us boldly become citizens of the digital world. The Church needs to be concerned for, and present in, the world of communication, in order to dialogue with people today and to help them encounter Christ. She needs to be a Church at the side of others, capable of accompanying everyone along the way.”
He further said, “The revolution taking place in communications media and in information technologies represents a great and thrilling challenge; may we respond to that challenge with fresh energy and imagination as we seek to share with others the beauty of God.”
Pope Francis’ message for World Communications Day 2025 will look at how to disarm aggressive communication and share the hope of Christ with gentleness.
The theme the pope has chosen for the 2025 commemoration is “Share with gentleness the hope that is in your hearts,” the Vatican Dicastery for Communication announced in September 2024.
The messages of the Pope set guidelines for meaningful and effective communication. But what is the reality? I wish to highlight the reality with a few concrete examples.
Example-1: Yesterday my journalist-friend sent me a WhatsApp message that he sent to the CBCI hierarchy. In his message my friend mentioned that the CBCI website contains incomplete data of bishops.
For example, only the name of the bishop and the diocese are found and no contact details are uploaded. To counter-check, I too browsed the website and found that there is no data under Dioceses. And the Arch/bishops do not have any contact details. When you click on a diocese, no data is found but a note appears “Details will be available shortly”.
I clicked on Daltonganj Diocese. I was shocked to see the name of the bishop. Rt. Rev. Gabriel Kujur’s name is mentioned as the bishop. He is the bishop emeritus. The present bishop’s name is not mentioned. Is this not a misleading information?
Example-2: I browsed the website of Daltonganj Catholic diocese (where I worked as a priest) in Jharkhand. The website contains age-old data. As a Consultant I visited the diocese in 2023. I offered my service to get the diocesan website updated through a professional media agency.
My priest-friend based in the US offered the required financial support. But the concerned priests, due to their selfish agenda, did not take my proposal forward. So, even today, the diocesan website looks very pathetic.
Example-3: I browsed the website of Coimbatore Diocese to get an information about a priest-friend. I was shocked to see the photograph of my priest-friend with a caption: “Medical Leave”.
This priest died in September, 2024. I communicated this to two priests of Coimbatore diocese to contact the concerned person and get it corrected.
Sadly, till the time of writing this article, the dead priest’s photograph is found among the priests with the caption: “Medical Leave”. Should we conclude that the dead priest is on medical leave lying inside his grave?
Example-4: Last year I sent an e-mail to the bishop of Kottar
diocese congratulating his homily on Easter Sunday. I never received any acknowledgement. On four occasions I have sent letters to the Apostolic Nuncio, New Delhi. But I never received any acknowledgement.
Today the websites of state/federal governments and the corporate companies are very professional with all details. And these websites are “user-friendly.” Every E-mail received is acknowledged and answered by them.
Why then the CBCI website and some of the diocesan websites are not professional? Neither the nunciature nor the diocese sends an acknowledgement, especially to a lay person. Why? Do CBCI and the dioceses lack human resource or material resource to make their websites and communication system professional and user-friendly?
The more we dig, more skeletons will be found. The four examples given speak volumes of the “inefficient communication system” in the Catholic Church in India.
The church authorities are not accountable for their deeds. They do not take responsibility for what they do. The worst thing is they are not transparent.
The laity is made to behave like three monkeys – not to see the bad things done by the clergy; not to speak anything against the clergy; and not to hear anything bad about the clergy. Today a vast majority of the laity (except a few enlightened ones) are blind, deaf and dumb.
How does the clergy succeed in doing this? It is through feeding of “religious opium.” Various meaningless and extravaganza-type of liturgical celebrations in the parishes and continuous preaching make the laity become meek and humble of heart. And the laity continues to PRAY, PAY and OBEY.
Pope Francis continuously exhorts the clergy about two important things – “to have the smell of the sheep” and “to be brief in their homilies.”
But the Pope’s pleadings go on deaf ears. How many bishops and priests are bothered about the Pope’s messages, especially on communication?
I may sound pessimist when I make this statement – “The Catholic Church in India is very unprofessional in its communication.”
It is high time the Church authorities did a sincere introspection and introduced remedial measures.