By: Jonathan Ng

Since Francis’s appointment in March 2013, he has been challenging the norms of a Pope. One of the ways in which his holiness has stepped outside of the box is by dipping his hands into international affairs and getting involved with the crisis in Syria. After the past couple of years of monitoring this peaceful protest turn into a chaotic uprising, he felt it was time to put a stop to the senseless fighting and reach out for international help.

On Sept. 5, as world leaders gathered for a G-20 summit, Pope Francis wrote a letter to Putin and urged leaders to consider pursuing a negotiated end to Syria’s civil war instead of pursuing military action. As a result, the Holy See issued a rare and detailed six-point program for peace as an alternative to the use of violence.

According to the letter, the Pope focused on, “Re-launching dialogue and reconciliation, avoiding division of the country into different zones and maintaining its territorial integrity.” He emphasized the idea of peaceful negotiations and respecting religious freedom and human rights. One of the diplomats who attended the briefing said he and his colleagues were “surprised at the detail of the program,” which aimed at ending the Syrian conflict and organizing a transition period and post-war reconstruction, according to ncregister.com.

Leaders were astonished by the pope and his determination to see this crisis through. “The briefing showed us that the Vatican means business; it’s not just rhetoric or platitudes,” the diplomat said, according to ncregister.com.

Since then, the Pope met up with Putin in Geneva on Nov. 25 to set up a peace conference to discuss further plans of negotiations in Syria. He also set up Sept. 7 as a special day of fasting and prayer for those suffering in the middle-east.

The Pope’s actions in attempting to solve the crisis in Syria is an example of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. His letter to the summit gave a detailed plan to the leaders creating awareness of his plan, interest for a non-violent solution, evaluation that it may be a peaceful and efficient way of solving the crisis, trial with plans to set up the peace conference for further discussion on the topic, and adoption by others, such as Putin, who agree with the Pope’s plan and want to put it into action.

I believe that this is a great example of public relations because Pope Francis is making a bold move to step outside of his comfort zone and address not only a religious crisis, but a highly political one. It shows people that he is willing to utilize his power and channel it ways that create change that no Pope has done before. Previous Popes have struggled with having international influence other than within the religious realm. Now that Pope Francis is taking the initiative to create peace in Syria, people are starting to see him in a whole new light. As news sources continue to promote his course of action throughout the world, his presence more is becoming gradually known and credible as a international leader of peace.

Sources

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pope-francis-outlines-syria-peace-plan/

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/05/world/la-fg-wn-pope-francis-syria-20130905

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/25/pope-francis-meets-with-putin-to-discuss-the-syria-conflict/

In 1984 over 300,000 young people from around the world responded to the invitation of His Holiness John Paul for an international jubilee of youth on Palm Sunday. The Holy Father entrusted to the youth the World Youth Day Cross as a symbol of the love of Chris for humanity. Every Palm Sunday since was been designated as a World Youth Day. There have been twelve celebrations, where the youth continue to carry home the message received to be Christ’s light to the world.

This past summer the thirteenth World Youth Day was celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nearly 2 million youth attended from around 190 different countries. On March 24^th Pope Francis announced in mass that he would be leading the 2013 WYD. There were five main events during the three days festival opening mass, papal welcoming ceremony, way of the cross, vigil, and on the last day a final mass. Pope Francis attended all these events celebrating and educating the youth about Jesus Christ.

Description of Elaboration Likelihood Model; most people are aware and actively think about ideas and therefore process via a central route. However there are so people who aren’t interested in the message, they don’t have time to process actively or have the ability to evaluate the message with an open mind, in these cases it is better to take a peripheral route. This means that people are often influenced by repetition of a message and highly credible spokespeople. In other words, you may not want to think about this but we are going to make it worth your while.

The World Youth Day festival fits perfectly with the Elaboration Likelihood Model. When it comes to Catholicism and the Catholic Church there is not a more credible spokesperson then the Pope and having him at this event provides credibility for the message. Also the event was repeated over three days and was talked about on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites for months before and after the event this provided repetition of the message. Also the World Youth Day event is held every two to three years, which also provides repetition of the message.

This event was a brilliant public relations move by the Pope and the Catholic Church. Over the years youth have been looked down upon by older generations, their opinions have not been respected and they are becoming less and less involved with the religion especially the Catholic Church. Since Pope Francis became pope he has been very outspoken about the importance of youth, supporting them and encouraging them to become more involved in the church. This event was a perfect way for him to empower the youth, showing them they are important and valued and educate them about Jesus Christ.

Click here to watch the official World Youth Day video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8u7XG-eSoQ

This event was extremely successful over 2 million people showed up and at some point in some way were talking about the pope or Jesus Christ. I don’t think there is any other way Pope Francis could impact that many people so directly. I happened to be in Brazil a couple of days after this event and people were still buzzing about it almost every young person you saw hap a World Youth Day sticker, t-shirt or backpack. It was even more special because Pope Francis is the first pope from South America so there was a great since of pride when he was there.

Sources

http://www.rio2013.com/en

http://worldyouthday.com/

By: Carissa Clark

On March 13, 2013 the start of a new era for the Catholic Church began when Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been appointed Pope of the Vatican church. Pope Francis is extremely different than the past appointed popes. He encourages openness beyond the Catholic Church; he promotes the belief that the church needs to accept and not judge all people with different walks of life and faiths. By doing this, he is doing a variety of outreach efforts to start educating and changing the thinking of Christians who do not agree with his views.    

To help establish changes beyond the church, he uses Situational Theory to help further his outreach tactics. He has acknowledged that not everyone communicates equally with the Vatican Church, so he has identified which groups who need more attention and how to rely his messages to them.  In this case, He has acknowledged that atheists and non-Christians are judged and looked upon negatively within the church. After acknowledging the problem, he has seeked out ways to address and correct the problem. One way of doing this, Pope Francis released the first encyclical letter specifically seeking out Atheists to get his message across.  On September 11, 2013 Pope Francis wrote a long letter to the Italian liberal daily La Repubblica to affirm that an “open dialogue free of prejudices” between Christians and atheists is “necessary and precious.”

Since the letter was released, there has been a lot of positive feedback in the news from reporters, one example is Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for the London-based Catholic journal The Tablet. He stated in his covered story about the letter: “Francis is still a conservative … But what this is all about is him seeking to have a more meaningful dialogue with the world.” That sort of open-handed approach toward nonbelievers and others has been characteristic of this pope since the first days after he took office in March, as he greeted the media and made a special point of respecting the consciences of non-Catholics and those who have no religious belief. http://www.religionnews.com/2013/09/12/analysis-pope-francis-outreach-atheists-controversial-seems/

Here is an example of media coverage about Pope Francis’ efforts: Pope Francis Loves Atheists

According to an article in the National Catholic Reporter, Francis makes three points in the letter that have all been said before, including by popes, but rarely with such clarity or in this kind of venue:

• God has never abandoned the covenant with the Jewish people, and the church “can never be grateful enough” to the Jews for preserving their faith despite the horrors of history, especially the Shoah, the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.
• God’s mercy “does not have limits” and therefore it reaches nonbelievers, too, for whom sin would not be the lack of faith in God, but rather, failure to obey one’s conscience.
• Truth is not “variable or subjective,” but Francis says he avoids calling it “absolute” — truth possesses us, he said, not the other way around, and it’s always expressed according to someone’s “history and culture, the situation in which they live, etc.”

Pope Francis wrote that he believes dialogue between the church and non-believers is important for two reasons. The first is the historical breach between the church and the culture inspired by the Enlightenment. “The time has come, and Vatican II inaugurated this season, for an open dialogue, without preconceptions, which reopens the doors for a serious and fruitful encounter,” Francis writes. Second, Francis says, from the point of view of the believer, dialogue with others is not a “secondary accessory” but rather something “intimate and indispensable.” (http://ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/latest-sensation-francis-writes-nonbeliever-urge-dialogue)

It clearly seems like this letter issued to Atheists is only the beginning of bringing reform to the thinking of believers as well as non-believers. He is being very proactive in his outreach efforts through his consistent communication and actions with the media. I think that there will start to be an impact in the dialogue with the Vatican Church and other walks of faith as long as he continuously sticks to his beliefs even if others don’t agree with him. Continuously be clear when addressing the media and never leave them with unanswered questions.

By Paige Tyson

@Pontifex. “Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness Pope Francis.” Search this handle and this message welcomes visitors to the new Pope’s Twitter page.

His Twitter handle was chosen for the previous Pope, Benedict, and means “Bridge Builder.”

When Francis’ Public Relations manager was questioned about its meaning, he was quoted saying “The Pope wants to reach out to everyone.”

It is undeniable that Francis is doing a better job at reaching everyone than his predecessor was, especially in the Twitter world. According to the Catholic News Agency, the Twitter page has recently reached 10 million followers over nine different languages, up from Benedict’s 3 million.

The use of Twitter is a clear example of Uses and Gratifications Theory which explains the behavior of people’s use of media:

• People will seek out specific forms of media for the information they desire
• Used in public relations to better target messages to desired audiences

One particular group that the Catholic Church has struggled to reach is the younger generation of believers. The standards and practices of the church seem out of touch and the church needed a new way to reach them. The Catholic Church, with the Pope, presented chosen stories and events through the Uses and Gratifications Theory by using social media to target those who regularly use that outlet.

While using Twitter is an effective strategy to reach a society that is so in-tune with social media, it could have been seen as nothing more than novelty. However, a series of tweets proved to offer more than simply words of encouragement and advice from HisHoliness. In July of this year, the Vatican offered Indulgences for followers of Pope Francis’ tweets of World Youth Day.