She made reference to Pope Francis’ Message for 2022 WCD titled, “Listening with the ear of the heart” and said that the Holy Father is seeking to establish a journey in the church. Pope Francis, she said, spoke about “seeing” in the previous year before coming up with the “listening” aspect of the Church this year.
“What the Holy Father is doing is helping us to make a journey, because we live in a world where we have been overtaken a little bit by the instruments of communication and they can make us lose our human dignity,” Sr. Njau told ACI Africa.
She added during the May 18 interview, “As human persons we have a certain dignity, and this dignity means that we are able to recognize the good in ourselves and the good in other people.”
“God himself has made us his children; God has given us his spirit; so, if you're listening with the ear of the heart, the heart is where God is. So, it means actually you are listening with the heart of God, meaning you are compassionate, you are merciful,” Sr. Njau said in reference to the Holy Father’s Message for 2022 WCD.
She continued, “We have to listen with the ear of the heart as the Holy Father is telling us that this heart also is the seat of discernment, the seat of making proper decisions; we just don't listen without paying attention.”
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In the May 18 interview with ACI Africa, Sr. Njau reflected on the relationship between the ongoing preparations for the Synod on Synodality and the WCD, and said that the themes of the two seek to take the church to the same journey and in a similar direction.
“The theme of the Synod is the mission of the church. We also have a theme for World Communications Day and the two marry very well; they are guiding us to the same end,” the Nairobi-based FSP member said, and added, “We have to walk together as God's children, as a family of God.”
She explained, “The Holy Father is telling us that we live in a world where everybody has an opinion but let's have a correct opinion so that we can participate, we can be in communion and we can go into mission together, the same thing about the theme of communication which is listening.”
She posed, “Where can you find communion if it's not in the seat of the heart?”
In a separate interview with ACI Africa, the Coordinator of the members of Catholic media houses in the Archdiocese of Nairobi said that it is only through listening to each other that people can journey together.
“I think that the ongoing Synod and the world communication day and the theme that was chosen, listening with the ear of the heart, there is a very strong connection; one influences the other or affects the other in a positive way,” Fr. Andrew Bwalya told ACI Africa during the May 18 interview.
The idea of the Synod on synodality, which entails getting views from different people, depends on the attitude of listening, the member of the Comboni Missionaries who oversees the New People Media Center said.
Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.