Pope Francis announced this week that modern man uses too many adjectives and adverbs in common speech, arguing that it leaves people discontented with the basic reality that a simple noun imparts.
“I am allergic to those words,” he said in a speech to the Vatican communications team, as reported by Newsweek.
Pope Francis admitted to having a particular ambivalence toward the word “authentic.” As he went on, the Holy Father said that people should instill the message that the “reality of nouns reflect the reality of people.”
“We have fallen into the culture of adjectives and adverbs, and we have forgotten the strength of nouns,” Pope Francis told the Dicastery for Communications. “Why say ‘authentically Christian’? It is Christian! The mere fact of the noun ‘Christian’, ‘I am Christ’ is strong: It is an adjective noun, yes, but it is a noun.”
“And this is a mission of communication to communicate with reality, without sweetening with adjectives or adverbs,” he added.
The Holy Father then advised the communications team to speak as if they were “putting all your irons on the fire” in a way that is “austere but beautiful.” Vatican News summarized the speech succinctly:
The Pope stressed the need to communicate “all that is true, just, good, and beautiful.” This must be done, he said, using “mind and heart, heads and hands – everything.” It is in love, he added, that we see the fullness of communication.
Pope Francis was firm about not engaging in a “commercial” style of communication that sets out to proselytize, or forcibly convert people. He quoted Pope emeritus Benedict XVI who once said, “the Church does not grow by proselytizing, but through witnessing.”
Communicating the Truth, means witnessing with your own life, said the Pope. “Being Christian means being witnesses, being martyrs.” He recalled the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, who said: “Preach the Gospel at all times. And when necessary, use words.” Witness, said the Pope, must always come first. Ours is a Church of martyrs, he added.
Pope Francis also warned against the temptation of “resignation”. Resignation, he said, does not reflect love for God. It exists in the pagan world, and Jesus Himself warns His disciples against the danger of “worldliness.” Do not fear “a Church of the few,” said the Pope, as long as we are like “salt, like yeast.”
The Pope suggested a style of communication that is “austere but beautiful.” Not a “Rococo” kind of beauty, he said, but a beauty that expresses itself “through nouns,” through “witness,” through involving oneself in communication.
The Holy Father’s comments on communication come shortly after he spoke out against the punishment of life imprisonment for diminishing a prisoner’s “right to hope.”
“It is up to every society … to ensure that the penalty does not compromise the right to hope, that prospects for reconciliation and reintegration are guaranteed,” Pope Francis said, as reported Catholic News Agency. “Life imprisonment is not the solution to problems — I repeat: Life imprisonment is not the solution to problems, but a problem to be solved.