Church needs media evangelizers, pope tells U.S.-based TV network

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The mission of sharing the Gospel, entrusted to humanity by Jesus, must spread also through modern media channels, Pope Francis said.

“Today we have a great need for disciples who continue the mission entrusted by the Lord, by Jesus Christ, who evangelize through communications media,” he told members of the El Sembrador Nueva Evangelización (ESNE), a U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, ESNE also operates a radio station and broadcasts across the southwestern United States, Mexico and Spain. It often transmits Masses, prayers and devotional content. The network previously interviewed Pope Francis in 2017.

During the meeting, Pope Francis praised the group’s promotional campaign, “Yo soy el 73” (“I am the 73rd”), a consecration to Jesus that he said serves “to build a community of evangelizers capable of communicating the joy of the Gospel and God’s mercy.”

The initiative takes inspiration from Jesus’ sending forth of 72 disciples to spread the Gospel throughout the world and communicates a willingness to become the 73rd disciple sent out to continue Jesus’ mission of evangelization.

Pope Francis thanked the group for “bringing the voice and the message of the pope to so many people in the United States and in other Spanish-speaking countries,” and he praised their work in broadcasting the Mass, formational materials and news about the church to those who are unable to leave their homes.

“I thank you also, and above all, because with your work you are close to so many immigrants from various countries in Latin America, who need points of reference, messages of consolation in their mother tongue,” he said. “Do not stop doing this.”

The pope also asked the group to continue to dream and to take inspiration from the “patron of communication,” the Holy Trinity, since the persons of the Trinity “live by communicating with each other.”