Journalism & Political Communication Task 2

French-Swiss Educator, Jean Baptiste Girard, once said that “by words we learn thoughts, and by thoughts we learn life.” Undoubtedly, the power of words is unmeasurable, but no one could have predicted the ‘conundrum’ the word ‘holidays’ would have brought, in the past few months.

Late October, Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli unveiled what the guidelines from hell entailed after a leak to the Italian press, Il Giornale.

What does the document state? And why has it offended many?

One should note that the guidelines have been in the making for numerous years and its main agenda, as stated by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was to enforce a #Union of Equality. This means that every single citizen is represented, valued and recognized equally, “regardless of their gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.”

First and foremost, this document states that all staff members of the Commission should take into consideration all holidays celebrated during different periods throughout the year and that ultimately not everyone is Christian. The example laid down in the document, in this instance, was Christmas. The Commission recognised the fact that the staff should be more inclusive and say ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Happy Christmas’.

Despite this issue being the most heard of, many other issues of gender neutrality were expressed in this document. In the Times of Malta article, journalist Mark Laurence Zammit stated that some of the guidelines are suggestions and that the staff themselves should choose to abide by or not. Others however are “rules” that “must always be followed when you communicate on behalf of the commission, regardless of your particular citation or personal stance.”

When it comes to the rules, the Commission made it clear that male oriented nouns and pronouns such as ‘workmen’ or ‘he’, should not be used as this might exclude women and non-binary people who prefer they/them pronouns. This applies as well to the terms ‘ladies and gentlemen’. Another issue was that staff should refer to women as ‘Ms’ as a neutral barrier to support a woman’s marital status.

Others include not using the word ‘citizens’ for those who are working in the European Union (EU) and defer from using Christian names such as ‘Maria and John’ and instead use ‘Malika and Julio’.

However, the issues that cropped up did not solely concern the ‘Happy holidays’ but even the ladies and gentleman. The European Commissioner for European Way of Life Margaritis Schinas, snarked at Dalli when addressing the commission by saying, “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I hope we can still call you ladies and gentlemen in the Commission.”

Said behaviour was very similar to the uproar that arose when Malta’s national airline AirMalta decided to take a similar stance when referring to people in a gender neutral manner. This raises the question, are people concerned with losing an essential part of their culture, i.e. religion or is this too liberal for their liking?

The Pope vs The Holidays

This document stirred quite the commotion leading Dalli to reiterate it. Naturally Pope Francis was one that spoke up, in the name of the institution. The Pope’s voice was echoed by Vatican News, established on the 27th of June 2015.

Vatican News is the official news portal of the Holy See along with the Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano and other Vatican Media. The portal's aim, and furthermore its agenda, is quite open and it is to “communicat[e] the gospel of mercy to all people in various cultures,” said cultures that align to Christian beliefs.

“[Vatican News] seeks not only to inform by bringing the hope of faith into all the world and offer a key to interpret facts through the light of the Gospel”.

The article written by a Vatican News Staff reporter was mainly based on a Q & A session between journalists and the Pope. However the Pope, despite not directly addressing its audience, gave subtle hints and sly remarks with the words he used.

The Article is titled, “The EU document on Christmas is anachronistic”. The term anachronistic, is quite ironic in this case. The Greek word comes from two words, ana with means against and kronos which means time. To summarise it means that something is out of its time. The irony lies when one of the eldest institutions of the world is calling a ‘modern’ approach outdated.

However, Pope Francis does not mean that the ideologies are old. He states that ridding people of their expressing christian practices, such as saying ‘Happy Christmas’ is a step towards removing a chunk of history, tradition and essentially the values that the EU was built on, Christianity.

It was then that Pope Francis referred to the fact that many dictatorships in the past, hence the anachronism, played the same game, “it is a fashion of a watered-down secularism, distilled water … But this is something that throughout hasn’t worked.” (Pope Francis, 2021)

“Be careful not to be vehicles of ideological colonisation. That is why [the issue] of Christmas is an anachronism”, said the Pope.

The comparison of inclusivity and nazism is being made on the basis of the European Commission removing the right of the majority of the staff’s beliefs. Many compared this to Nazi tactics such as the burning of books.

This implication of the Pope, or ideology, proves the function of the hypodermic needle theory, set up in the 1920s and 1930s after researchers noted the effect on people that propaganda made during World War I. This theory essentially states that the opinion leader/political actor, in this case the Pope, can easily influence a large group of people.

Many people view the Pope as an essential figurehead and listen to what he has to say religiously. People might take the issue more seriously if there is a threat of war, something that the Europeans have worked tirelessly against. And it is for this reason that Pope Francis, using these tactics is injecting its passive audience (sender - receiver).

When it comes to the article of Times of Malta, Mark Laurence Zammit gives an elaborate summary on what the document says, gathered political actors' opinions, as well as kept the public informed that the document has been put off. All of this has been done in one article.

Hence, despite the journalist having a hidden agenda because of his theological background, Times of Malta, a somewhat independent platform, has kept the news outlet as open as possible to the idea. An example of this is publishing a columnist’s opinion on the matter, opposing the Pope’s views.

Offering the public different opinions gives them the ability to form their own opinion without injecting them with bias. Infact according to Jurgen Habermas (1964), the demand that information be accessible to the public, is extended from organs of the state (the European Commission) to all organizations dealing with the state (the media).

References:

1. Brian, M. (2011). An Introduction to Political Communication. fifth ed. Oxon: Routledge, pp.1–247.

2. Habermas, J., Lennox, S. and Lennox, F. (1974). The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964). New German Critique, 3(3), pp.49–55.

3. Maia, D.L.B. (2021). EU accused of trying to cancel Christmas! Advice on inclusive language dropped after criticism. [online] politico.eu. Available at: https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-cancel-christmas-inclusive-language-lgbtq/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2022].

4. www.vaticannews.va. (n.d.). About us - Vatican News. [online] Available at: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/about-us.html [Accessed 5 Jan. 2022].

Extra readings/research:

1. https://www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/author/jean-baptiste-girard

2. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/anachronistic