The legacy of the historic spokesman of the Pope Giovanni Paul II between benevolence, communication and the future
16th November 2018 - “Every act of benevolence is above all a gift, but a gift for the giver. Will kindness save the world? Yes, benevolence can change the world indeed, the world changes to the extent that benevolence is exercised". Kindness is one of the strong themes bequeathed by Joaquin Navarro-Valls, historical spokesman of the Pope Giovanni Paul II, who passed away on 5 July 2017 and who would have turned 82 today. On this occasion theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma wanted to celebrate his figure with a meeting between the historic friend Paolo Arullani, president of the Biomedical University Foundation, and the director of Rai Vaticano Massimo Milone. A meeting to remember the witness of faith, the friend, the doctor, the communicator. This is why a doctor and a journalist met today atUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma to retrace the human itinerary, starting from the words of the communicator who invited to "Try at all times to distinguish between the urgent and the important and plan your work around the latter aspect" and warned, in his decalogue of communication: “An institution must provide information on why it does what it does: it is not enough to provide information on the actions taken, but the reason for a given choice must be communicated. Otherwise, a hundred different interpretations will follow." Navarro-Valls explained. Lastly, work should be conceived as a mission but not for success: “The thought of necessarily having to succeed at a job is the worst enemy of the job itself. You can't always think about success. The good communicator admits the mistake! And in the end what happens when you are wrong? Nothing, a mistake was made, period."
These and other thoughts, collected by Paolo Arullani in the book “Joaquìn Navarro-Valls – memories, writings, testimonies” were the common thread of the conversation between Paolo Arullani and Massimo Milone"“Quico”, as I like to remember him, was a friend to me, a communicator of the Truth, a doctor who was always attentive to the person – he said Paolo Arullani - A great communicator of even difficult truths, a witness of values. He had the ability to make people love the things he said: when he talked about Giovanni Paul II, people, listening to him, discovered him for his ability to give value to things and people. Today, in a world that seems confusing, problematic, aggressive, violent to everyone, the memory of him and his voice still give everyone a strong signal of hope and love. With his yearning for the good of people he delved into the meaning of the words arriving at a synthesis that he himself formulated in the concept of "benevolence" capable of "changing the world" more consciously and profoundly than philanthropy. Also in this sense his presence at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and its Polyclinic, has also been of great help through the Biomedical University Foundation, created to support the commitment to research and the humanization of care. Today, on the occasion of your anniversary, therefore has the meaning of reflecting on our identity through memory: as you wrote Giovanni Paul II in his latest book "Memory and identity".
Massimo Milone, journalist and director of Rai Vaticano explained: "In the many ethical questions posed today to producers of communication, I believe there is a strong need to return to a testimony in which an experience of truth is immanent. We are witnessing an ethical opacity, in society as in communication, at a twilight where moral reasons seem to appear in permanent conflict with the reasons of freedom and therefore with those of personal self-realization.The confrontation with the truth thus seems decidedly anti-modern while it is the key to giving meaning and body to the story of human existence, of a character famous or ordinary people.This certainty has always animated the work of one of the greatest and most qualified communicators of modernity. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the man, the communicator, the intellectual who, with a profound and experienced Christian spirituality, opened , with the long Pontificate of Giovanni Paul II, the doors to a global communication of the Church. But never forgetting the meaning and scope of a higher mission. This is how I like to remember Navarro-Valls, who "sanctified" his profession as a communicator by describing a Pope Saint."
