Lombardi: Grateful to God for my 80 years, communicating good is a mission

Alessandro Gisotti

Father Federico Lombardi turns 80 today. The Piedmontese Jesuit, one of the protagonists of post-conciliar ecclesial communication, was director of the Holy See Press Office with Benedict XVI and Pope Francis; for 25 years at the head of Vatican Radio, first as director of programs and then as director general of the pontifical station. For more than 10 years he also directed the Vatican Television Center. A life of witness and service to the Church, marked by passion and competence, which he continues today as president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation and as superior of the Jesuit religious community of The Civiltà Cattolica. It was precisely in the magazine of the Society of Jesus, in 1973, where he took his first steps as a journalist before becoming its deputy director in 1977. In this interview with the Vatican media, Father Lombardi dwells on some fundamental passages of his life and his profession lived alongside the last three Popes.

Father Lombardi, with what feelings do you live this 80th birthday, which precedes in a few days – and this is also significant – your 50th anniversary of priestly ordination, next September 2?

There is a sense of surprise at having arrived. All of us when we are young think of 80 years, or 50 years of priesthood, as very distant goals, of very old people… and then, day by day you get closer and in the end you arrive, and maybe even more there… so a surprise accompanied, of course, by a lot of gratitude, because I can only give thanks, both for life and for having been called to live this life as a religious and as a priest. It is a time of thanksgiving, if you will also with a little look and balance on one’s own life, on one’s own service, but fundamentally it is a time of thanksgiving, because what has been received is so much that it really there is nothing more than thanking the Lord with amazement and saying: ‘Thank you, you have given me so much time and so many opportunities and so many proofs of your grace: thank you for having accompanied me up to here’. I hope I have responded in an acceptable way to the gift you have given me.”

Of his 80 years, almost 50 have been dedicated to the service of the Church and the Holy See in the field of communication. What has he learned – although, of course, it is difficult to summarize – especially in the service of several Pontiffs in a few years, moreover, marked by rapid, very rapid technological development even in the field of information?

The first thing I learned from experience – and it took me a while to learn – is that communication for a person who lives in faith and in the Church is a participation in the mission of evangelizing, of communicating, which is precisely one of the perspectives in which you can see the whole reality of the world, of history, of the relationship with God and between men. Here is communication: our God is a God who communicates, a God who has communicated to us with words, with Revelation, with the sending of Jesus Christ. The whole Church then has a mission, which is to communicate, make known, spread this Word of the Lord. Understand that if one is called to work in the field of communication, he is called to collaborate – even in specific forms and tasks – in the very nature of the Church and in the relationship between God and humanity.

You are a Jesuit, you were also Provincial of Italy. How has Ignatian spirituality influenced your way of working in communication?

Ignatian spirituality teaches us, helps us, educates us, to see God in all things, to see the work of the Lord around us, in reality and in the people around us. That is why it helps us to read reality and people and events from a perspective of faith, as the presence of the Lord in action. Saint Ignatius speaks of the Lord as someone who works: this has always caught my attention. He acts around us in events, in history, in people, and it is about getting to know him, seeing him, rediscovering him in this work of his, and helping others to see him too, to understand him and welcome him in this presence. hers.

John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis. You have had the opportunity to be a close collaborator with the last three Popes. What do you take away, both personally and professionally, from such an extraordinary, almost unique experience?

I have always conceived of my work as a service and it has always seemed clear to me that the Pope is a servant: the Pope is a great servant of the Church and of humanity, of the presence of God in the world. And that is why I was called to serve this service, to collaborate in this service. Over time, this call to collaboration really seemed like a great gift to me, because the mission carried out by the Popes is really a wonderful mission for the good of people, of humanity, of believers. I have been able to collaborate, put all my strength at the service of this mission, in the concrete sense then of helping to understand it, of making it known through our media, through our communication channels. It was a service for this great service of the Popes to humanity and to the Church. This has always fascinated me and I was very grateful to have been called to this type of work.

Those who have had the privilege of working with you know the attention you have always dedicated to young people, to their personal and professional growth. Today, to a young man or woman who wants to enter the profession of journalist, what advice would you give?

I would tell him that his profession can be wonderful, but that it should be lived as a vocation: not only as a career in which to develop technical skills, but as a way through which people are helped to meet others, to establish a communication that is of understanding, of mutual dialogue. A communication that helps to know the truth and not to deceive others; in which one learns to also highlight the positive aspects and not only the drama of suffering or the problems posed by evil and injustice. Certainly they must be denounced, but the ability to show a presence, often a little more hidden but equally important, of kindness, of love, is also necessary. I must say that in the best moments of service, even of the Popes, in communication, I had my own experience, the impression that even fellow journalists were happy to discover the beauty of their work as communicators because they collaborated in spreading messages positive for humanity at whose service they should be, as communicators. This seems to me the ideal with which to move in the field of communication, with all the patience and precision that learning, day by day, to communicate well from a professional point of view implies. Not letting yourself be dominated by technical-professional skills, but knowing that these must be put at the service of something great and beautiful in order to build together a society and a worthy ecclesial civil community.

You are 80 years old, but you are still active in the field of information, in The Catholic Civiltà, and also in the Vatican as president of the Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation. He can give himself a lot even when he is an elderly person, as Pope Francis has underlined in his recent catechesis on the so-called third age…

As long as one can, as long as one has the strength, of course it is good to perform the service that is asked of one. Sometimes, it is a service that changes a bit in style, in nature and also in effects: an older person perhaps feels less called to be in the present, but more in reflection, in search of the meaning of things, in values, but also in the future because you don’t have to close in on yourself. A future in which essential things continue to lead the way. Precisely, in a somewhat traditional way, I consider that the true, the good, the beautiful continue to be the reference points of our life and our perspective of hope.