The Good News of Hope

Richard A. Sokerka

On the feast day of St. Francis deSales, patron of writers, editors and communicators, Pope Francis condemned the tendency for media to focus on “bad news,” saying journalists, while being accurate, must also offer a message of hope.

“We have to break the vicious circle of anxiety and stem the spiral of fear resulting from a constant focus on ‘bad news,’” such as scandal and other human failures, the Pope said in his message titled, “Fear not, for I am with you: communicating hope and trust in our time.”

February is Catholic Press Month, the perfect time to reflect on the Pope’s message, given the state of news that we are bombarded with in print, on websites and in social media.

Pope Francis’ appeal for a more positive take on the news isn’t the first time he has made such a request, nor is it the first time he has criticized journalists who always focus on negativity and scandal. It’s a message that should be read by all in the communications field, no matter what faith they profess.

Confidence in “the seed of God’s kingdom spread throughout the world ought also shape the way we communicate,” he said, adding that this confidence allows everyone in the communications field to carry out their work with the conviction “that it is possible to recognize and highlight the good news present in every story and in the face of each person.”

“I ask everyone to offer the people of our time storylines that are at heart ‘good news,’” Pope Francis said.

That’s exactly what the staff of The Beacon is charged to do in each edition — spread the Good News! If only the secular media outlets, be they print, websites or social media, heeded the Pope’s message to steer clear of slander, defamation, misinformation and focusing excessively on scandal. Instead, if they concentrated on being truthful and ethical in their reporting, there would be less divisiveness in our nation and most certainly, it would bring us together as a nation as never before.