In response to Pope Francis' recent call for a greater focus on good news, we are actively seeking out stories that show hope, loving kindness and positive achievement - which are all very Salesian of course! We're sharing these stories on social media with the hashtag #GoodNews, and we'd like you to join us and share your #GoodNews stories too.

In his recent message for World Communcations Day, Pope Francis called on the media to give greater attention to positive stories, moving away from the conviction that only bad news sells and the climate of fear this creates. His words reflect the theme for the Church's own World Day for Social Communications 2017: 'Fear not, for I am with you' (Is 43.5): Communicating hope and trust in our time.

Pope Francis urged all of us who 'grind out' information in any form in our personal or professional lives to be more constructive in our communciation. This does not a call for blind optimism or for us to ignore or falsify the terrible things that are happening in our world. He asks for a balance, in order to 'break the vicious circle of anxiety and stem the spiral of fear resulting from a constant focus on bad news,' which leads to fearfulness, apathy and the view that 'evil has no limits'.

We would like to encourage everyone in the Salesian Family and our friends in other groups to join us in sharing their own #GoodNews stories to help 'all of us to view the world around us with realism and trust'.