Introduzione

[Autom. eng. transl.] The Holy Father's Message for World Communications Day touches this year on the theme of narration as a device that allows us to fix memory by tying life and history together. This is a very topical issue. In fact, we are only now trying to get out of a delicate phase of our individual and social experience in which stories, memory, the relationship between life and history have shown all their importance. The stories, first of all. I think of the daily story of the fight against contagion, of the epidemic data, of the evolution of the situation. But also the story of the liturgy, the story of the Word which, from television and social media, has "woven" (as the Message says) the threads of a community that was in danger of dispersing, keeping it united. It happened for the morning appointment with the mass from Santa Marta, as well as for the video streaming broadcasts from many churches around Italy. Memory, secondly. I think of the memory of the breaking of bread, above all. The "digital" liturgy has carried out this function of remembrance of the gesture, allowing all believers to repeat the experience of the disciples of Emmaus, who recognized Jesus precisely from the breaking of bread. From this point of view, the powerful icon of Francis alone, in the churchyard of St. Peter, is presented to us as one of the most eloquent images of this ability of the story to remember, to fix and in memory. Again, life and history. Telling is telling oneself. A long tradition of thought, from Saint Augustine to Husserl, has shown it very well, indicating in the story the temporal relaxation of our soul. This is why the story is life, because it is the translation of life, the script that becomes action. And it translates life into history, because it takes it away from the passing of time, fixes it. This has happened for so many stories of altruism and generosity that the media rhetoric, often a bit sensationalist, has hastily labeled "heroism". In fact, they were ordinary stories and not of heroism, stories of transcendence, which showed everyone the way to overcome individual interest, to leave one's comfort zone, to give oneself to others. In all these cases, the narrative responds to the need, which the Message clearly states, to build stories of good: "in order not to get lost, we need to breathe the truth of good stories: stories that build, not destroy; stories that help to rediscover the roots and the strength to move forward together. In the confusion of voices and messages that surround us, we need a human narrative, which speaks to us about us and the beauty that inhabits us. A narrative that knows how to look at the world and events with tenderness; that tells of our being part of a living fabric; that reveals the intertwining of the threads with which we are connected to each other ". It is clear what needs to be avoided. Stories that do not allow you to "breathe the truth" should be avoided: it happens with fake news, as with ideological and tendentious information, as with deception, murmuring, slander. Stories that "destroy" are to be avoided: they are stories that defame, persecute, deny the other person the dignity of a person. Stories that produce "confusion" are to be avoided: they are the stories that disorient, that make one lose clarity, that risk producing indistinction and consequently trigger the logic of violence. The result is a very strong ethical indication for all communication operators, but ultimately for each of us. What we are referring to is the responsibility of the story; what is hoped to develop is a pedagogy of narration capable of ensuring that tales of peace are generated and of reminding us that even "when we tell evil, we can