World Communications Day 2024 will be celebrated on Sunday 12 May.
The Pope’s Message for the 58th World Day of Social Communications 2024 was released on 24 January, the Feast of St Francis de Sales, patron saint of Catholis writers and journalists. This year is focusing on the theme: Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart: Towards a Fully Human Communication.
AI is “radically affecting the world of information and communication, and through it, certain foundations of life in society,” says the Pope in his Communications Day message, adding that “these changes affect everyone.”
So, the Pope asks, “how can we remain fully human and guide this cultural transformation to serve a good purpose?”
Starting with the heart
In answering this question, the Holy Father notes that “at this time in history, which risks becoming rich in technology and poor in humanity, our reflections must begin with the human heart.”
He recalls that, in the Bible, the heart is seen as the place of freedom and decision-making, “symbolising integrity and unity, while also engaging our emotions, desires, and dreams.”
But, he continues, the heart is, above all, “the inward place of our encounter with God.”
“Wisdom of the heart, then, is the virtue that enables us to integrate the whole and its parts, our decisions and their consequences, our nobility and our vulnerability, our past and our future, our individuality and our membership within a larger community,” says the Pope.
The above extracts were originally published by Vatican News on 24 January 2024, read the full article here.
Further information and resources are available through Bishops’ Conference website.
World Communications Day, the only worldwide celebration called for by the Second Vatican Council (“Inter Mirifica“, 1963), is marked in most countries, on the recommendation of the Bishops of the world, on the Sunday before Pentecost.