«Give the charity of the truth to all men and women”. This sentence attributed, besides to others, to Don Giacomo Alberione, founder of the Pauline Family, is commonly used and goes back to the apostle Paul himself. In the letter to the Ephesians, he invites us to live “according to the truth in charity” (4, 15). However, the expression, which has become a slogan, expresses the spirit of the Founder of the Pauline men and women and the mission they have to fulfil in the Church. Their mission is the proclamation of the Gospel, of Christ, Master, Way, truth and Life. Don Alberione himself compares this service to the truth and the Gospel to charity towards the poor, paraphrasing the words of Peter to the crippled man near the Beautiful Gate of the Temple (See: Acts 3, 6): «I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, Way, Truth, Life”. With this short article, we would like to offer a reflection on the actuality of offering “the charity of the truth”.

Two poles: charity and truth

The two poles of the expression, charity and truth, could seem antithetic and call for opposite interpretations. If we stress the pole of charity, we run the risk of an easy irenics, ending to suffocate the radicalism of the Gospel, adapting it to momentary fashions and opportunities.  It is a well present risk today, with the triumph of the politically correct, a false form of respect for the other, based on the most absolute relativism. Thus, we finish by loosing the courage and freshness of Jesus Himself, by diluting and watering the freeing force of the Gospel message. However, if we emphasise the pole of the truth, we run the risk of not considering the human being to which we speak and of not communicating the freeing force, namely Jesus Christ, but our own hardness of heart, our own attachment to precepts and rules as such. In other words, we risk communicating a purely abstract truth, an extrinsic and formal imposition, deprived of its essence. Here we can remember the words of Jesus, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2, 27).

Therefore, charity and truth go always together. This is possible if we are totally rooted in Christ, who is the revelation of the Father’s love (“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life”, John: 3, 16). He himself is the truth (See: John, 14, 6). Benedict XVI also writes it in his encyclical Letter Deus caritas est. He says, “The living contact with Christ is a decisive help to stay on the right way: neither with pride, which despises man and destroys instead of building, nor by giving up to resignation, which would prevent us from being guided by love to the service of man. As a means to go on fetching new strength from Christ, prayer becomes a concrete urgency. He who prays does not waste his time, even if the situation manifests the characteristics of emergency, seeming to push only to action. Piety does not weaken our struggle against poverty or even against the misery of our neighbours (37).

Surely, the Pope refers to the charitable action, understood as usual, namely as the attention we must pay to the material needs and sufferings of the human beings. However, his talk is valid also for the particular form of charity at the service of the truth. In fact, the encyclical does not ignore this theme, though not presenting it explicitly. Monsignor Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary for the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, has recently written, “It is not possible that this variegated world of direct or indirect expressions of the ecclesial community exercises only charity without the culture of charity. It exercises charity social culture, culture of human relations and assistance, culture of the sick and education, culture of the needs, and so long and so forth.  Here we touch a fundamental point for the purification of justice, strictly linked with the social doctrine of the Church. Faith and charity actuate also a “charity of the truth” concerning reason and justice. The Christian community cannot help being a cultural subject in his social charity.  Since charity is never acting for the sake of acting, but an acting carrying some meanings with it, by acting we change our mentality. We reflect on needs and on the answer to the needs in a new way. This arouses and nurtures comprehensions, which are capable of orienting the charitable action itself”. The traditional exercise of charity itself demands a culture, a mentality, particularly the safeguarding of the full truth on man. In fact, man is not only soul, but also body, created to the image and similitude of a unique God, who is communion of three persons, therefore created for love, rationality and communion. 

Monsignor Crepaldi deepens his reflection observing how “in Deus caritas est”, the element of charity of the truth is definitely present and is theologically based on this statement, “The Logos, the primordial reason is simultaneously a lover with the passion of true love” (no. 10). «If the old world had dreamt that, after all, the true food of man –the thing man lives with-  was the Logos, the eternal wisdom, this Logo has now become true nourishment for us, as love” (no. 13). God is love, but also truth. This is why our encounter with Him “requires also our will and our intellect” (no. 17). Paragraph 28 of Deus Caritas Est is full of “visual” expressions, to show that the purification of reason is a form of charity of the truth. We speak of “formation of conscience”, which is evidently seeing what to do in a better way. We speak about the “perception of the true exigencies of justice, even when this might contrast personal interest”, which means being able to see more clearly.  We say that through the purification of our reason the demands of justice become “more comprehensible” and that the Church works for the “opening of intelligence” to the exigencies of the good.

The service of the truth is a gesture of love

The service of the truth is, therefore, a form of charity, of concrete love, a work of mercy. It is particularly important today in our society of communication, where, despite the multiplication of information and messages, the truth finds difficult to make its way, because the pressures of parties and the new ideologies based on profit suffocate it. The truth of the Gospel emerges with even more difficulty. “Will the face of Christ emerge from this galaxy of images and sounds? Shall we hear his voice? Only when we can see his face and hear his voice, the world will know the good news of our redemption” 1.

First, we must remember that the respect of the truth is a fundamental presupposition, a reference rule for all the workers of social communication, particularly for the newspapermen. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read very clear words, “In our modern society, the means of social communication have a role of singular importance in the information, cultural promotion and formation. This role grows according to technical progress, to the richness and variety of transmitted news and to the influence exercised on the public opinion. The information through the mass media is at the service of the common good. Society has the right of information based on the truth, on freedom, justice and solidarity. “The correct exercise of this right requires that communication be always true in its content and, saving justice and charity, integral. Moreover, it requires that it be honest and convenient in its expression, namely, scrupulously respectful of the moral laws, the legitimate rights and the dignity of man, both in the search of news and their divulgation. (Inter mirifica 5)» (2493-2494).

Further, the Catechism is even more explicit, “To form and to spread the correct public opinion, it is necessary that all the members of society may fulfil their duties of justice and charity also in this sector. (Inter mirifica 8). Solidarity is the consequence of true and just communication, of free circulation of ideas favouring knowledge and respect for others […]. Because of the duties of their profession, the responsible publishers are obliged to serve the truth in the diffusion of information, without offending charity, trying to respect carefully the nature of facts and the limits of critical judgement on persons, avoiding defamation” (2495.2497).  Respect to the truth in charity, namely of paying attention to the persons we speak to or of, is even fixed in the Italian law on the printing press (n. 69/1963, art. 2). “Freedom of information and critical judgement is an uncompressible right of the newspapermen, limited by the observance of legal norms dictated by the safeguard of people’s personality. The respect of the substantial truth of the observed data of facts, as well as of the duties of loyalty and good faith, is their unbreakable obligation. They must rectify the wrong news and correct the eventual errors”. The reporters, the politicians, the enterprisers and ecclesiastics do not always respect these very clear words. They rightly call to cause the truth of the fact, but at the same time they would like to deny the freedom of information and criticism, with the pretext that “the dirty linen must be washed at home”. It is not by hiding the truth that we help persons. The mass media have a precise form of information, of denunciation, of deepening indispensable for a society to be truly democratic. It is not by chance that the first thing the dictators do is that of taking possession of the mass media.

Constitutive means of charity

In the encyclical letter Deus caritas est, the Pope asks himself about the constitutive elements of Christian and ecclesial charity, so that we may not confuse it with the activity of other aiding organisations. I think that the answer he enucleates are good also for persons whose particular way of exercising charity is the communication of the truth through the mass media.  The Pope shows three elements: first, the professional competence united with humanity. The Christians “must distinguish themselves for the fact that they do not limit themselves to carry on with competence something convenient at the moment. They dedicate themselves with the attention prompted by the heart, so that this may experience the richness of humanity. Therefore, besides the professional preparation, the professional publishers need, above all, a “formation of the heart” so that they may encounter God in Christ, who arouses love and opens their heart to the other” (31a). The second element is the independence from parties and ideologies. “We contribute to build up a better world only by doing good now and in the first person, with passion and wherever possible, independently from strategies and programmes of parties. The programme of the Christian -the programme of the Good Samaritan and of Jesus- is a “heart who can see”. The heart is able to see the place that needs love and consequently acts in it”(31b). Finally, the third element is the gift. “He who exercises charity in the name of the Church will never impose the faith of the Church on others. He knows that pure and free love is the best testimony to the God in whom we believe and who urges us to love. The Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is good not to speak of him, letting love free to speak” (31c).

Can we see the face of Christ in the confusion of today’s sounds and images?  This is a commitment which all Christians and religious must give an answer to, particularly if we are devoted to the world of media. The answer is hidden in the sentence “give the charity of truth to all men and women”, revealing the exigencies and the freeing force of the Gospel, with the courage of denouncing the injustices and abuses against the poorest. To them we offer the truth in charity, namely with human approach, with attention paid to the other, the typically Christian free giving, without hating anyone, rather welcoming and dialoguing with all men and women.