The Conferences’ Communications Delegates met with the Curia team

On 30 April 1556, Jesuit Fr Gasper Caleza, on mission towards Abyssinia, sent a letter to Ignatius Loyola describing the needs of the mission. In that letter he made a case for obtaining a printing press to assist in the missionary work of the Society of Jesus. Though such an endeavor would require great expense and coordination to obtain and ship the device, both Caleza and Ignatius understood the tremendous potential benefits of a press in communicating the message of the Gospels in the works of the Society. A few months later, the first printing press in India was setup at St. Paul’s College in Goa.

Since its early days, the Society of Jesus has valued the power of communications in the mission. Properly done communication acts as a “force multiplier” for all the works of the Society. When ministries bring hope and inspiration, communication spreads that hope and inspiration across the world. It was with that belief that the Jesuit General Curia in Rome hosted a worldwide gathering of Communications Delegates from 24 to 27 June. A representative from each of the six conferences joined Jesuit Curia Communications for four days of conversation, training and discernment. Spanning topics from Social Media best practices, to vocation promotion, to communicating with empathy and compassion, the meeting also created networking opportunities for the conferences to imagine working on projects with the Vatican, the Curia and their brothers and sisters in other regions.

One of the highlights of the meeting was a visit by Dr Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery of Communications, who engaged the group in a discussion about the ministry of communications in a modern world. With the dicastery leading the charge into the 2025 Jubilee of the Church just over six months away, Dr Ruffini laid out a vision for reaching the younger generations. While he was passionate about continuing to reform the dicastery to increasingly use the tools of the digital word, he also made an appeal for the assembled communicators to use digital communications to drive “real-world encounters between people looking for a community, something that is only possible with face-to-face encounters”.

To end the meeting, the delegate brought the fruits of their discernment to Fr General Arturo Sosa, who then offered his own reflections on the communications apostolate, starting with, “From the very beginning of the Society of Jesus, communication has been part of the work. Not something in addition to the ministry, but PART of the ministry.” Recalling the history of communications in the Society, Fr Sosa pointed out the vital nature of communications that can not only spread word of the ministries of the Society, but also bring hope. “No matter our countries of origin, today it is easy to lose hope. The greatest mission of communications is to bring hope to people who have lost it.”

The delegates now return to their regions with hope for collaborative projects, discernment in community, and a communications apostolate that is very much in line with that first printing press on mission.