Rome & the World: trust in journalism • religious money • WYD ’23 on the way

In an opinion article published in Angelus, Greg Erlandson, editor-in-chief of US press agency, Catholic News Service, analyzes the current state of journalism with a focus on Catholic media in particular. Erlandson judges that there is currently “a crisis of authority that is afflicting church, state, and press,” which means people are more likely to believe in fake or distorted news. People have become “more suspicious and more credulous” in recent years, which he warns is “dangerous for democracy” and also “dangerous for a Church that believes its very mission of evangelization hinges on both authority and trust.” Additionally the journalist explains there is also a “a crisis of involvement and engagement,” as people have become less interested in the news that is reported, as it is often describing “how terrible the world is.” Erlandson argues “we need to give people some hope, some means of responding” in order to keep them engaged. “If journalism, Catholic or otherwise, is not just to survive but thrive, we need to get beyond stoking outrage or playing it safe by not outraging anybody. What we need is to give people a sense of their own agency, that there is hope, and they can contribute,” the journalist concludes. 

Angelus, English

Michele Mifsud, deputy treasurer of the Congregation of the Mission of the Vincentian Fathers, explains how a religious congregation manages its patrimony by combining economic and religious values. He explains that he has been managing goods that are ultimately destined for the poor for over a decade now and bases his work “on an economic system based on value, understood from a religious point of view.” “Only in this way is it possible to avoid falling into the temptation to mismanage goods,” Mifsud explains. He writes that it is important to understand “that there are two languages related to financial aspects, one language of the economic and secular world, and another of the missionary and religious world.” “At the center of the two languages are values. Obviously, in order to function, the religious mission must use economic language, but only as a means; the value for the religious world is that of missionary language,” the treasurer argues. Citing Pope Francis’ various encyclicals, Misfud explains how “values, then, as a bridge between the two worlds, secular and religious, complement each other in the mission of Jesus Christ to achieve the kingdom of God.” Values such as financial responsibility, transparency or solidarity create “the fraternal economy, which leads to the need for good guidance,” he concludes. 

Omnes, Spanish

"The path that leads us [to the 2023 World Youth Day] has the normal difficulties of any path, but we are doing well and going with the certainty that we will reach the goal, with God's grace," said the secretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, Father Alexandre Awi Mello to the Portuguese agency, Ecclesia. He recently accompanied those who participated in the European Youth Pilgrimage in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and called it a “small” version of the WYD. There were around 12,000 participants and Father Mello said they were able to experience, "in a very beautiful way," a program similar to the one that will take place in Lisbon. In terms of the Dicastery’s work in preparation for the WYD of 2023, Father Mello says the Pope invited them “to be creative, original,” also with regards “to spiritual preparation.”

Ecclesia, Portuguese