VATICAN CITY-Pope Francis urged foreign correspondents on Saturday to humbly use the power of the press to search for the truth and give voice to the voiceless, saying journalism is an important tool to counter the hatred, prejudice and fake news.
In an audience with the Foreign Press Association in Rome, Francis also urged journalists to not fall prey to sending click-bait headlines and half-reported stories, saying errors can not only misrepresent the truth but damage entire communities.
He lamented attacks on journalists around the globe and assured reporters that the Catholic Church at large appreciated their work "even when you touch a raw nerve, including within the ecclesial community."
While Francis meets with journalists regularly during his foreign trips, it was the first time a pope has received the Foreign Press Association, which represents journalists from more than 50 countries, since St. John Paul II in 1988.
Francis kept his distance from the press in his native Argentina. But in the past year, he and his aides have repeatedly praised the role of the media in exposing the clergy abuse scandal and for reporting about the plight of migrants, "forgotten wars" and other cases of human suffering.
"We need journalists who are on the side of victims, on the side of those who are persecuted, excluded, thrown away and discriminated against," Francis told the roughly 400 journalists and their families in the frescoed Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace.