Our Call to Dialogue
A keyword which underpins the dominant theme of Pope Francis’s pontificate — that of mercy — is revealing itself: dialogue.

“…speaking to one another with respect, consideration, compassion and love is the key to happy relationships.” – Pope Francis
The pope has referred to the virtue of genuine dialogue many times before, notably in his encyclical Laudato Si’. But in recent weeks he has amplified the importance he attaches to dialogue as a means of communication in all our endeavours.
Dialogue, understood as the mutually respectful interaction between people, is central to the practice of mercy as it seeks to comprehend the position of the other. It fosters empathy and therefore counters hatred, and even enables compassion. It facilitates understanding, which can bring about solutions to problems and peace among people.
Communication rooted in genuine dialogue is more likely to produce positive results than communication that resorts to decree, belligerence or coercion.
So it is significant that the pope has chosen as his theme for World Communications Day 2016 “Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter”.
Introducing the theme, the Vatican said that it “highlights the capacity of good communication to open up a space for dialogue, mutual understanding and reconciliation, thereby allowing fruitful human encounters to flourish”.
This applies to the highest echelons of Church, society and politics as well as to relationships within families and other personal interactions.
Pope Francis has often spoken about the importance of dialogue within families. When he identified the words “please”, “thank you” and “sorry” as the elementary terms for good family life, he conveyed that speaking to one another with respect, consideration, compassion and love is the key to happy relationships.
Addressing the bishops of the United States, Pope Francis suggested that the rhetoric that places the Church within a cultural war against secular values is out of line with his vision.
The pope told the US bishops: “There is always the temptation to give in to fear, to lick one’s wounds, to think back on bygone times and to devise harsh responses to fierce opposition.”
But that should not be the Church’s way. “We are promoters of the culture of encounter. We are living sacraments of the embrace between God’s riches and our poverty,” Pope Francis said, encouraging the bishops to dialogue among themselves, with their priests, with the laity and with society.
“I cannot ever tire of encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly,” the pope stressed.
It is better, therefore, to engage with Catholic politicians who hold views that run contrary to the teachings of the Church in dialogue — which requires no compromise on the Church’s teachings — than to issue public threats of sanction, such as to withhold Communion from them.
This goes for all Catholics: there is no mercy in seeing those with whom we differ as the enemy, with our goodwill towards them governed by their submission to our point of view.
Mercy does not require of us to moderate our principles, but it calls on us to act towards others in a manner that reflects the love of God, who loves all human beings.
That is a tall order, of course. It is not easy to extend compassion to those with whom we differ radically, less so when our compassion is not reciprocated. It is so much easier to communicate with the tools of decree (because I say so), belligerence (conquer my enemy) or coercion (if you don’t do as I say).
We must resist that temptation. As Pope Francis counselled the US Congress: “We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within.”
Dialogue, he said, is the only way to handle the pressure and fulfil the call to serve the common good, promoting a culture of “hope and healing, of peace and justice”.
This is true for politics — secular and within the Church — and for dialogue between people of different faiths or none. It is also true for interpersonal relationships.
Dialogue, Pope Francis told the US bishops, “is our method, not as a shrewd strategy but out of fidelity to the One who never wearies of visiting the marketplace, even at the eleventh hour, to propose his offer of love” (Mt 20:1-16).
Communication and action rooted in love — mercy — is what it means to truly witness Our Lord Jesus.
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