The following is a translation of Benedict XVI's address on
Thursday, during the audience to participants in the plenary
assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Cardinals,
Venerated Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
With great joy I give you my most cordial welcome on the
occasion of the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for
Social Communications. First of all, I wish to express my
gratitude to Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of your
pontifical council, for the courteous words he addressed to me
on your behalf. I extend my greeting to his collaborators and
those of you here present, thanking you for the contribution you
offer to the working sessions of the plenary assembly and the
service you offer the Church in the field of social
communications.
These days you have paused to reflect on the new technologies of
communication. Even a not very attentive observer can easily see
that in our time, thanks to the most modern technologies, a
genuine revolution is taking place in the realm of social
communications, of which the Church is ever more responsibly
conscious. These technologies make possible a speedy and
penetrating communication, with a capacity to share ideas and
opinions; to facilitate acquiring information and news in a
personal way accessible to all.
The Pontifical Council for Social Communications has been
following for some time this amazing and rapid evolution of the
media, in the light of the magisterium of the Church. I would
like to recall here, in particular, two pastoral instructions, "Communio
et Progressio" of Pope Paul VI and "Aetatis Novae," published at
the behest of John Paul II. These are two authoritative
documents of my venerated predecessors, which have fostered and
promoted in the Church a widespread sensitization on these
topics.
Moreover, the great social changes that have occurred in the
last 20 years have exacted and continue to exact a careful
analysis on the presence and action of the Church in this field.
The Servant of God John Paul II, in the encyclical "Redemptoris
Missio" (1990) recalled that "the work in these means does not
only have the objective of multiplying the proclamation. It is a
more profound event, because evangelization itself of the modern
culture depends in large part on their influence." And he added:
"It is not enough, then, to use them to spread the Christian
message and the Magisterium of the Church, but it would be good
to integrate the message itself in this 'new culture' created by
modern communication" (No. 17 c.). In fact, modern culture
arises, even before the contents, from the very fact that new
ways of communication exist with new languages, new techniques,
new psychological behavior. All this constitutes a challenge for
the Church, called to proclaim the Gospel to men of the third
millennium, keeping the content unaltered, but making it
comprehensible thanks also to the instruments and means
harmonious with the mentality and the cultures of today.
The means of social communication, as they are called in the
conciliar decree "Inter Mirifica," have assumed today
potentialities and functions which at that moment were difficult
to imagine. The multimedia character and structural
interactivity of each of the new means, has diminished, in a
certain sense, the specific character of each one of them,
generating little by little a sort of global system of
communication, according to which, though each means keeps its
own peculiar character, the present evolution of the world of
communication obliges increasingly to speak of only one form of
communication, which synthesizes different sources or connects
them reciprocally.
Among you, dear friends, there are many experts in this matter
and you can analyze with more professionalism the different
dimensions of this phenomenon, including above all the
anthropological. I would like to take advantage of the
opportunity to invite those who work in the Church in the realm
of communication and have responsibilities of pastoral guidance
to take up the challenges that these new technologies pose to
evangelization.
In this year's message on the occasion of the World Day of
Social Communications, when stressing the importance that the
new technologies have, I encouraged those responsible for the
communicative processes at all levels, to promote a culture of
respect for the dignity and value of the person, a dialogue
rooted in the sincere search for truth, friendship that is not
an end in itself, but capable of developing the gifts of each
one to put them at the service of the human community. In this
way, the Church exercises what we could describe as a "diakonia
of culture" in the present "digital continent," traversing its
paths to proclaim the Gospel, only Word that can save man.
It corresponds to the Pontifical Council for Social
Communications to reflect further on each element of the new
media culture, beginning with its ethical aspects, and to
exercise a service of orientation and guidance to help the
individual Churches to understand the importance of
communication, which represents today a firm point of any
pastoral plan which can never be given up. The characteristics
of the new means make possible precisely, including on a large
scale and in a global dimension, an action of consultation, of
exchange, of coordination, which in addition to enhancing an
effective diffusion of the evangelical message, avoids on
occasions a useless waste of energies and resources. However, in
the case of believers, the necessary appreciation of the new
media technologies must be supported always by a constant vision
of faith, knowing that, beyond the means that are used, the
efficacy of the proclamation of the Gospel depends in the first
place on the action of the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church
and the way of humanity.
Dear brothers and sisters: this year the 50th anniversary is
celebrated of the foundation of the Vatican Film Archive,
instituted by my venerated predecessor, Blessed John XXIII,
which has collected and catalogued material recorded from 1896
up to today, capable of illustrating the history of the Church.
The Vatican Film Archive has, therefore, a rich cultural
patrimony, which belongs to the whole of humanity. While I
express my heartfelt gratitude for what has been done, I
encourage you to continue in this interesting work of
recollection, which documents the stages of the journey of
Christianity, through the thought-provoking testimony of the
image, so that these goods will be looked after and known.
To those of you who are present here, I again thank you for the
contribution you offer the Church in a particularly important
realm at this time, as is that of social communications, and I
assure you of my closeness so that the action of your Pontifical
Council will continue to bear many fruits. On each of you I
invoke the intercession of the Virgin and impart to you all the
apostolic blessing.
[Translation by ZENIT]
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