The Augustinian Recollect Marciano Santervás (Izagre, León, Spain, 1947) has worked for more than two decades in the social communications of the Province. We spoke with him on the occasion of the Jubilee to learn about his experience and opinion. Part 1.
What importance do this Jubilee 2025 “Pilgrims of Hope” and, more specifically, the Jubilee of Social Communications have in the current context?
The ultimate goal of everything the Church plans and carries out is always the same: evangelization. Consequently, the Jubilee is also “an event of great spiritual, ecclesial and social importance in the life of the Church” that seeks evangelization and personal and structural conversion.
That said, the meaning of the Jubilee of Communications must be understood within the general sense that Pope Francis expresses in his letter to Monsignor Rino Fisichella when he entrusts him with the preparation of the Jubilee:
“The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire.”
The Pope wrote this after considering the serious problems that humanity is experiencing, to which he refers in the bull of institution Hope does not disappoint. If this is the meaning of the Jubilee in general, the specific meaning for the Jubilee of Communications must be that all communication professionals become aware of the ecclesial feeling and that, through their professional training, they contribute to creating that climate of hope and confidence that society in general is crying out for.
No other profession or activity is in such a favorable position to propose and strive to make the “dreams” that Pope Francis proposes in Hope does not disappoint a reality.
Can the Jubilee influence the way the Church communicates?
Following the papal tradition that began in 1967, Pope Francis publishes his Message for the World Day of Social Communications every 24 January. The title of the 2017 message read: “Communicating hope and trust in our times”, which is very significant and in line with the spirit of the Jubilee 2025.
Doom-mongering and harsh criticism are not good for influencing others. Generating trust and opening doors to hope is not denying reality, which is sometimes dark and almost always complex. Perhaps what the Pope wrote at that time will help the Jubilee, especially as it affects communication professionals, to influence the lives of the faithful and those who receive the messages:
“I would like, then, to contribute to the search for an open and creative style of communication that never seeks to glamourize evil but instead to concentrate on solutions and to inspire a positive and responsible approach on the part of its recipients. I ask everyone to offer the people of our time storylines that are at heart ‘good news’”
The good news, in the Pope’s opinion, is ultimately Jesus Christ himself, the Gospel.
Do you think that the Church’s messages are understandable to our societies?
My opinion on this subject, always a poor opinion, matters little, but what Pope Francis said on the 57th World Communications Day (2023) is of great value:
“We have a pressing need in the Church for communication that kindles hearts, that is balm on wounds and that shines light on the journey of our brothers and sisters.
I dream of an ecclesial communication that knows how to let itself be guided by the Holy Spirit, gentle and at the same time, prophetic, that knows how to find new ways and means for the wonderful proclamation it is called to deliver in the third millennium.
A communication which puts the relationship with God and one’s neighbour, especially the neediest, at the centre and which knows how to light the fire of faith rather than preserve the ashes of a self-referential identity.
A form of communication founded on humility in listening and parrhesia in speaking, which never separates truth from charity”
In these words, Francis recognizes the shortcomings in the ecclesial communication process and proposes a magnificent program for all communication professionals in the Church, which may be failing not so much in the technical aspects as in the spirit and attitudes that the Pope emphasizes.
Every communicator seeks listeners, or readers, or viewers. If he tries to embody the papal proposal, whatever he communicates about the jubilee – or about any other event – will exert its influence, will produce its effects.
What role have the New Information Technologies played in the Augustinian-Recollect Family?
In answering this question, it is prudent not to apply the yardstick, but to remain in the realm of assessment and, consequently, in the world of probability.
My opinion is that the Order could no longer function without the use of Social Networks and the new technologies applicable to Social Communications in general. Therefore, they have meant a notable change, imperceptible to some.
But it is necessary to recognize that the Order woke up late to this electronic mode of communication; that there were some early pioneers, whose actions were not understood by others, that many others entered the new forms of communication without adequate knowledge and that another group, more or less numerous, has remained almost on the sidelines in this process of continued changes, which imply a certain effort and adventure.
You have been directly or indirectly involved in the communication of the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino for more than two decades. What were the main objectives that you set out to achieve? Can we distinguish stages, achievements or progress?
As president of the Media of an institution of the Church, the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine of the Augustinian Recollects, the main objectives are given by the institution itself: evangelization, as an institution within the Catholic Church, the communion of the religious and the Augustinian Recollect Family, and the dissemination of the charism and the works of the Family itself.
These three objectives were specified in other, more practical, objectives, included in Statutes and reflected in an annual Action Plan, all approved by the competent body.
Logically, in the more than twenty years that I was close to this service, I have to distinguish several stages:
The first began with the end of the 20th century, when only conventional written media were considered, such as the inner magazine OAR al habla (OAR speaking), which was born in 1970, the friendship newsletter Canta y Camina (Sing&Walk), which was launched in 1986 – both are still published periodically – and other brochures.
Since 2004, there has been a qualitative leap, with the inauguration of this website, which was presented to the public as a shy teenager on March 19 and has undergone several renovations since then; the most recent in 2023 when, after great efforts to preserve all the information published since its beginnings, the internal architecture was changed from Laravel to WordPress, the system with which it works today.
In 2009, the audiovisual space on YouTube was opened and, in order to better achieve the main objectives and other very important ones, since 2014 access has been made to Social Networks: first Facebook and X, then Instagram (February 2023).
A network that is especially dear to the Province was also opened in 2014: the Saint Ezequiel Moreno Virtual Prayer Centre.
The vast majority of Internet users are on these Networks, especially the young sector, but also older people.
Would you highlight any moment or project of the Province in terms of Communication?
The management of public Communication in the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino has always been carried out as a team, although not all members of the team assumed – or could assume – the same workload. All decisions of a certain importance were discussed and evaluated in meetings of the Communication and Publications Commission (CCP) of the Province.
That said, the most cherished project has undoubtedly been the Saint Ezequiel Moreno Virtual Prayer Center, which in the first few months had a spectacular reception, judging by the number of visitors and the activity it developed.
It was certainly given careful attention with almost daily publications and maintaining personalized contact with visitors. As president of the CCP, I entrusted some of the team with special attention to the care of this page; a person was even hired with the main objective of creating pastoral content and implementing the Virtual Prayer Center. For some time now, the publication of content has decreased with the imaginable consequences.
Why this special affection for this page, which is not strictly the institutional one? Saint Ezequiel Moreno (1848-1906) is an Augustinian Recollect saint, Spanish from Alfaro (La Rioja), missionary in the Philippines and Colombia; he was bishop of Pasto, a city in the Colombian Andes, and died of cancer of the palate and nasal passages after horrible sufferings, which he endured with saintly patience.
In 1992 he was canonized by Saint John Paul II in Santo Domingo and was proposed as a model of evangelizer. He is also considered the patron and special intercessor of cancer patients.
The intention in creating this page was to come into contact with this world of pain and illness, without paying attention to the creed or ideology that might inspire the visitor, aware that the language of suffering – like that of love – is understood by all human beings; In addition, the aim was to promote prayer for the sick and by the sick, for which the contemplative Augustinian Recollect nuns are asked to pray for the sick and their families who request it.
It is a page, therefore, in which a good part of the Augustinian Recollect Family is involved and in an area that provides human and spiritual encounters of great intensity and significance.
