Abstract
During hard times, when human existence is “at risk”, people try to restore membership and to reinforce identity. These processes act as socio-cultural anchorages and existential resources functional to their wellbeing. In this scenario, the figure of religious leader can play an essential role, since it combines the need for renovation coming from religious “systems of meanings” and the expectations deriving from religious “systems of communications”. In the actual so severe global crisis, mainly deriving from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war (but also from the ecological emergency and other social issues), Pope Francis embodies a leadership style that, starting from the “rhetoric of the unexpected” and through a “digital leadership”, matches some of the features emerging from the new psychology of leadership, mainly focused on the value of “we-ness”. In this background, the overall aim of this work is to shed light on the communicative features of the charismatic leadership of Pope Francis during the last global crises, in order to understand: a) which are the main discursive strategies he made use to convey his message and to meet the believers’ needs; b) which are (if any) the discursive peculiarities in the declination of its leadership when pandemic or war issues are at stake. In order to answer to these research questions, several public discourses of Pope Francis from 2020 until today have been analysed by content and discourse analysis. Implications about the importance and effectiveness of Pope Francis’s leadership for religious communities are debated.
Presenters
Rosa ScardignoAssistant Professor, Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari "A. Moro", Bari, Italy
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
POPE FRANCIS, LEADERSHIP, GLOBAL CRISIS, DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
