English
Testimonies
Christians in the media
Fr. José María La Porte holds a doctorate in theology, another in Communication, and is lecturer in Institutional Communication at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Italy.
Why did you choose this topic?
Because I am a journalist by training, having studied it at the University of Navarre’s Faculty of Communication that was set up thanks to St Josemaría in 1952. There I met some extraordinary teachers who had a great influence on my development. I was always interested in the relationship between their non-conformist, positive approach, and the inspiration St Josemaría gave to the very first lecturers there.
What sources did you use for your thesis?
Basically I used material that has already been published, but the Istituto Storico San Josemaría Escrivá in Rome offered me some writings and testimonies that are still being prepared for publication. I also conducted interviews with people in the media world who met St Josemaría and feel indebted to him for his openness and love for freedom.
Is it possible to maintain objectivity as a journalist, when you have faith?
Christian faith is compatible with the rigorous exercise of objectivity in journalism. No journalist, whether or not they have faith, can write any article without employing their personal talents and personal convictions. They will try to be more or less objective, but their convictions are still there. Christian faith is not a hindrance but a help, because it gives one a further reason for seeking truth, professional rigour and objectivity.
Why was St Josemaría interested in the media?
St Josemaría was an optimistic person, and encouraged Christians to sanctify the world. First in Spain and then in Italy, he followed current events in the media with great interest. He was always well-informed, reading the newspaper or watching the news on television with great attention, and sometimes used news items in his preaching. A lovely example of that was in one of those big gatherings in Barcelona in 1972. St Josemaría was encouraging his listeners to be tenacious in their spiritual battles, and not to admit defeat. To illustrate what he meant, he used the images of the 1972 Olympics he had watched on television, physically imitating those athletes’ concentration and will to win.
Do the media have anything to do with the spiritual life?
The media can also become a way of reaching God. In St Josemaria’s teaching, earthly realities are not simply the scenery for man’s pursuit of holiness, but they can all, including the media, become the actual pathway that leads us to God.
That explains why when he was watching the news on Italian television, and he noticed that the introductory frames for the programme included a spinning globe, that image led him to pray for the apostolate around the world; or when he was reading the newspaper after breakfast, he would often become absorbed in prayer for a few moments.
Is there no opposition between the spiritual life and the media?
For somebody with ordinary professional honesty, working in the media can enrich their spiritual life, because it enriches one’s knowledge of the people on the receiving end. And everything that perfects and enriches one as a person, is also a help to one’s spiritual life. The relationship between what is human and what is divine is expressed in some words by St Josemaría in a homily he gave during an open-air Mass for a congregation of several thousand students and others who had come from different parts of the world to meet him. He said: “I assure you, my sons and daughters, that when a Christian carries out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence of God. That is why I have told you repeatedly, and hammered away once and again on the idea that the Christian vocation consists of making heroic verse out of the prose of each day. Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives” (Conversations with Msgr Josemaría Escrivá, 116).
Are the conclusions of your thesis relevant for the media in the 21st century?
Definitely, because right now the freedom of the press is under threat in many countries, as you can see from the news about journalists being killed or threatened. The generations of media professionals who were in contact with St Josemaría had a love for the truth and for their profession which led them to risk their careers to defend their objectivity and independence. One of them, Antonio Fontán, had his newspaper closed down. Another, Luis Ignacio Seco, was prevented from exercising his job for some time, simply because he had published an interview with a leading Opposition figure during the Franco years. José Luis Cebrián and Juan Pablo Villanueva suffered similar attacks against their paper, the Nuevo Diario, in the nineteen-sixties.
Prayer
RSS