THE JUBILEE COULD BE THE "MATCH" OF THE CENTURY

Dino Boffo

What would we think of a media system which, having to report an important football match, should, in a collective raptus, begin to describe in detail the stalls filled with people, the state of the grass pitch, the advertising boards, even the wood of the goal posts or the quality of the stitching on the leather football, and said nothing, absolutely nothing of how the match went, not even the final result?

We wouldn't think much of it. And even the audience would, to say the least, be perplexed. What sort of information would this be? What are the journalists up to - they would say - is this a joke? To tell the truth, something of this kind could happen with the "match" of the century, or rather of the millennium. The "match" of the Great Jubilee. Not that nothing is being said of it. Indeed, anyone wanting to read something on the subject, armed with only a few cuttings, could probably spend a good couple of afternoons in an armchair. After which they would know everything about the warnings, the fears, the foreseen disasters launched by a few intellectuals, regarding an invasion of pilgrims, or rather "religious" tourists": polluters, noise-makers, destroyers. Pilgrims? Or Alaric on tournee? Some have suggested, with an unpleasant paradox, lets stop them at Magliano Sabina, concentrate them in some area, let's save Rome. Sic.

And then lengthy debates for (few) and against (many) the famous subway passage by Castel Sant' Angelo or the renowned park of the Gianicolo. There is so much frenzy that often the sense of direction is lost and the Jubilee 2000 overlaps the courted (at least by the city's administration) Olympic Games of 2004. Works here, works there. With a rebound of brief witty remarks and queer reasoning, whose basic objective appear to be to de-concentrate the attention, weaken intentions, foster confusion.

If we were already in December 1999, we could only weep. Instead there are more than two years to go and much can be done. It would suffice for journalism to realise what a Jubilee really is. Automatically one would realise that it is an unrepeatable moment for journalism itself. If journalism is able to render a valuable service to the Jubilee by presenting it for what it truly is (if it speaks of the "match", the main action, the protagonists), even more valuable is the service that the Jubilee can render journalism.

How? Simple. The Jubilee invites the nations to a meeting with Christ. It invites them in other words to an exciting "game" of truth. And journalism, (I am thinking above all of Italian journalism because I know it better but I fear that the reasoning may hold for the whole world) is living a phase of particular falsehood, at times unconsciously, but not for this less false. The fight for primacy of circulation (or audience), subjects the media to the sole rule of commercial efficacy, driving them towards appetising themes and controversial subjects, foreign all moral inspiration, aiming for goals falsely neutral and therefore only cynical. This journalism lives always less for news, that is for its original "mission"; and ever more for business, the give-away, or the reader-catching editorial. In short, it is a system which has ever less respect for the dignity of the reader and the civil function of journalism itself, and so tends to betray itself. A journalism in need of redemption. The Jubilee could be a valuable occasion to return to making authentic news. To searching for the truth. In an imperfect way, of course, because implacably imperfect are we men and our instruments. But to seek to be honest, yes. To try, and keep trying. This could be an opportunity to side at last decisively with individuals and peoples, at the close of one of the most offensive centuries regarding respect for man's humanity, freedom and rights.

There is the Jubilee of which the media, if they are willing to try, should not find it too difficult to paint a true picture. And there is the general public who have the right to really know, without frustrating reductionism, what the Jubilee is all about. The Pope himself, with lucid timeliness, lamented the general inadequacy of the media in a message last January for the 31st World Communications Day. The prime value which guides them, the Pope said is profit. «Is there still place for Christ in the traditional mass media? May we claim a place for Him in the new media? The proportion of programmes which ... help people to better their lives is apparently decreasing». And he continues: «It is not easy to remain optimistic about the positive influence of the mass-media when they appear either to ignore the role of religion in people's lives, or when the treatment that religious beliefs receives seems constantly negative and unsympathetic». Nevertheless at the end of the message the Pope left ample space for hope. Hope placed in Jesus Christ but entrusted to men and their freedom. Not by chance does the threshold of two thousand determine, generally, both anxiety and hope. The reasons for anxiety are easily found. More difficult - but not impossible - to identify, the motives for hope and to announce that this history and this humanity, in spite of everything, are loved and redeemed. Perhaps it would suffice for a conscription of communications' operators to change key, modify their irreparably ancient cultural codes and accept to tell at last about the real "match". To discover alongside the tales of hatred and desperation, positive stories of love and redemption. There is a treasure-box which is totally neglected by official communication, namely concrete popular living, which merits to be fed into the circuit of public opinion, to contrast with facts an unavoidably materialistic and nihilistic vision. Good news, news of which the protagonists are men and women who see Two Thousand not as a Cape Without Hope against which we could go aground, but a Cape of Good Hope, once around it, history continues, improves.