Preserving Human Voices and Faces ... with help from St. Francis de Sales
On Monday, January 26, 2026, in reflection of the Holy Father’s Message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, KPC hosted a free micro-retreat for Catholic communicators. We were honored to welcome Fr. Thomas Dailey, OSFS, a priest in the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, and the current John Cardinal Foley Chair of Homiletics and Social Communications at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as our retreat facilitator.
Fr. Tim Smith of the Diocese of Sioux Falls closes us with prayer and a blessing.
During our time together, Fr. Dailey shared with us the history of World Communications Day and a summary of the Pope’s message, plus two reflections on St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), patron saint of writers and journalists, exploring person-focused and heart-focused communications.
Four specific areas he drew our attention to in relation to Pope Leo’s message include:
Face + Voices = personal…sacred
There is much value in who we are as people, as we reflect the image of God for which we are created.
Don’t renounce your thoughts
We should not have a naive reliance on technology or be passive consumers who hide our face or silence our voice.
Being or Pretending
With the introduction of artificial intelligence, we recognize that technology is getting better at appearing human. With this anthropomorphism there is a risk with bias, inaccuracies and partial truths. Communication is not about a mere exchange of information but more so about the people.
Alliance
As we look for ways to better align technological advancements with the human person, it should be based on the three pillars of responsibility, cooperation, and education (literacy).
In summary, Fr. Dailey reminded us of the proper order that “we need the face and voice to once again express the person.” Technology is, and always will be, subordinate to the person.
St. Francis de Sales teaches us to dialogue instead of arguing, and to persuade rather than coerce as it relates to person-focused communication. One quote from Fr. Dailey that struck me in particular from our retreat is that “Passion for persons is more effective than zeal for an idea.” I encourage you to sit with that for a moment - does your care for the individual and compassion for others take precedence over being right?
Finally, considering heart-focused communication, we were reminded of the Salesian approach that reminds us “to speak well, it suffices to love well.” St. Francis de Sales was the first to say, “Heart speaks to heart” (cor ad cor loquitur), which was later adopted as a motto for St. John Henry Newman, signifying that words from the heart matter more than intelligence of the mind. Does the relational aspect of communications always carry through in your own ministry?
We packed a lot of great thinking into a short 90 minutes. I am particularly grateful to Fr. Dailey for offering his time to be with us today and for providing us with such a thorough and thought-provoking summary of ideas. To view the full recording, please click here.
Let us together fully prepare our minds and hearts to officially celebrate the 60th World Day of Communications on May 17 this year, the Sunday before Pentecost.
St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.
