Here is the text of
a conference given by Archbishop Claudio Celli,
president of the Pontifical Council for Social
Communications, on the theme of "The Role of Mass
Communications in Evangelization."
The conference was given Friday at a congress sponsored
by the New Evangelization of America, lasting through
Sunday, in Dallas, Texas.
* * *
I would like to begin my talk this afternoon with two
quotations from the recently deceased Cardinal Avery
Dulles. The first quotation sees Dulles grappling with
the inner mystery of the Trinity: "The Trinity is
communication in absolute, universal perfection, a
totally free and complete sharing among equals. In
generating the Son as word, the Father totally expresses
himself ... the Holy Spirit completes the intradivine
process of communication" (The Craft of Theology, From
Symbol to System. 1992). The second quote finds Dulles
teasing out the implications of his understanding of the
Trinity for the life of the Church: "The entire work of
creation, redemption, and sanctification is a
prolongation of the inner processions within the
Trinity. Creation is ascribed to the Father, who thereby
fashions finite images and vestiges of his Son.
Redemption is attributed to his Son, who communicates
himself to human nature in the Incarnation.
Sanctification is appropriated to the Holy Spirit who
communicates himself to the Church, the communion of
saints. The mystery of divine communication, therefore,
permeates any area of theology … Because Christianity is
the religion of the Triune God, it is pre-eminently a
religion of communication" (The Craft of Theology, From
Symbol to System. 1992).
I have taken these very rich insights as my starting
point, not simply to evoke the memory of a great
theologian, but because they remind us that
communication is not just another activity of the Church
but is at the very essence of its life. The
communication of the Good News of God's love for all
people, as expressed in the life, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, is what unifies and makes sense of all
the other aspects of the life of the Church. This is
particularly true of evangelization: Communication is
not simply one dimension of evangelization, without
communication there can be no evangelization.
Proposition 38 from the recent Synod on the Word of God
echoes this insight: The mission to announce the Word of
God is the responsibility of all the disciples of Jesus
Christ by virtue of their baptism. The awareness must be
deepened in every parish, and in every Catholic
community and organization: They must find ways to bring
the Word of God to all, especially to those who have
been baptized but who have not been adequately
evangelized. The Word of God became flesh so as to
communicate himself to all men and women; a particularly
privileged way of knowing this Word is therefore in
encountering witnesses who make it present and alive.
This proposition serves to remind us, also, that
communication is not simply a verbal activity but that
every aspect of the life of the church can be and ought
to be communicative.
It is in this context, that I want to begin to focus on
my precise topic
— the role of mass communications in
evangelization. The mass media and the new ICTs have a
very important role in the communications mission of the
Church but they are, in the final analysis, only part of
the story of that communicative reality. The preferred
use of the term, social communications, in many of our
Church documents serves to remind us that there is a
communicative dimension to every aspect of Church life
and that we must not think exclusively in terms of our
relations with the mass media or the new emerging
media. Notwithstanding these qualifications, it remains
true that the mass media
— traditional and new alike
— provides us with a privileged way of bringing
our message to ever greater audiences and in a variety
of different ways. This role was recognized again at the
recent Synod
— in their Message, the Synod members reminded
us: The voice of the divine word must echo even through
the radio, the information highway of the internet, the
channels of "online" virtual circulation, CDs, DVDs,
podcasts, etc. It must appear on all television and
movie screens, in the press, and in cultural and social
events.
The Synod, however, was equally attentive to the
cultural aspects of this mission. This new
communication, in relationship to the traditional one,
has created its own specific and expressive grammar and,
therefore, makes it necessary not only to be technically
prepared, but also culturally prepared for this task.
Those wishing to communicate effectively and fruitfully
must be both technically competent and fully attentive
to the culture of the environment within which they are
operating. I would suggest that there are two dimensions
to this required cultural attentiveness; in the first
place, it is important for the communicator or
evangelist to know the general culture of his or her
intended audience
— to know their cares and concerns, their fears
and their hopes; in the second place, he or she must be
familiar with the specific culture challenges presented
by the new media environment where significant changes
in patterns of media consumption have been brought about
by the changes in technologies.
In terms of the general cultural context, I would
contend that we must remain very hopeful. My reason for
this is ultimately theological. Christian anthropology,
the Christian understanding of what it means to be
human, begins from the insight that all human beings are
made in the image and likeness of God: This is seen as a
universal truth about our nature and does not depend on
whether humans themselves recognize God or not. To be
human, therefore, is to exist in relation to God whether
one believes or not. Having been created in the image
and likeness of God, it is rooted in our human nature
that we should desire to be loved and to love. This
insight gives me absolute confidence that the core
message of the Gospel will continue to resonate in the
hearts of humans. Moreover, the basic command of Jesus
that we should love one another and that we should
express that love in the service of our neighbor,
especially our poorest neighbor, offers to humans a way
of living that will enable them to be fully human, and
societies to flourish.
It can seem at times in our increasingly secularized
West that people are moving ahead and getting on with
their lives without any obvious need of God. If they
have any idea of God at all, it seems to be an image of
a God who is very far removed from the reality of their
lives. In good times, people seem to make sense of life
and find purpose in the everyday realities of work,
family and recreation. There are times, however, when
people find themselves forced to confront deeper
questions
— this is particularly true at times of death and
illness, at times of personal or economic insecurity and
even on occasions of profound joy and happiness when the
ordinary narratives of secularism and consumerism prove
inadequate to the task of making sense of life. The
French theologian, Rene Latourelle, spoke of these
moments as "points of insertion" as times when people
are particularly open to the Gospel message.
Pope Benedict XVI, during his visit to Lourdes last
September, noted this current situation and the
challenge of belief in our modern societies. He said:
"Now, and above all, it is time to work toward a genuine
spiritual liberation. Man is always in need of
liberation from his fears and his sins. Man must
ceaselessly learn or relearn that God is not his enemy,
but his infinitely good Creator. Man needs to know that
his life has a meaning, and that he is awaited, at the
conclusion of his earthly sojourn, so as to share for
ever in Christ's glory in heaven. Your mission is to
bring the portion of the People of God entrusted to your
care to recognize this glorious destiny" (Meeting with
the French Bishops' Conference, Lourdes, 14 September
2008).
Our mission is to bring the Good News of God's infinite
love for all to our brothers and sisters as the greatest
service we can give to them. Our evangelization is never
about building up our own numbers or about increasing
our influence but is always concerned with liberating
people from the false gods that can so easily and
stealthily invade their existences. John Paul II brought
to the fore the drama of this situation when speaking
about Europe in 1995, but what he had to say was by no
means relevant only to Europe: "At the root of this loss
of hope is an attempt to promote a vision of man apart
from God and apart from Christ. This sort of thinking
has led to man being considered as 'the absolute centre
of reality, a view which makes him occupy
— falsely
— the place of God and which forgets that it is
not man who creates God, but rather God who creates man.
Forgetfulness of God led to the abandonment of man.' It
is therefore 'no wonder that in this context a vast
field has opened for the unrestrained development of
nihilism in philosophy, of relativism in values and
morality, and of pragmatism
— and even a cynical hedonism
— in daily life.' European culture gives the
impression of "silent apostasy" on the part of people
who have all that they need and who live as if God does
not exist."
In addition to the general cultural awareness, about
which I have been talking, there is also the need to
attend to the specific media culture that is coming into
being in the context of the ongoing revolution in the
technologies of communication. We are living through a
time of profound change in the world of communications.
Commentators often speak of a digital revolution to
indicate the extraordinary developments in the
technologies of communications we have witnessed over
the last two decades
— computers are smaller, more powerful and more
affordable, mobile telephony has connected people all
over the world, satellites allow simultaneous global
transmission of news and events and the Internet itself
has created new possibilities for the communication of
information, knowledge and learning. It would be a
mistake, however, to see these changes as merely
technological; they have also revolutionized the culture
of communications. They have changed the ways people
communicate, the ways they associate and form
communities, the ways by which they learn about the
world, the ways in which they engage with political and
commercial organizations.
As a community of believers committed to making known to
all people the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Church is challenged to consider how it will seek to
communicate its message in the context of a new emerging
culture of communications. Traditionally, we have
thought of new means and technologies of communication
as instruments to be put into the service of the
transmission of the Word
— "Evangelii Nuntiandi" characterized the new
means as a "modern and effective version of the pulpit."
The challenge today is to understand that the new
technologies are not just instruments of communication
but are profoundly affecting the very culture of
communications.
Commentators point out that "digital communication" is
marked by multi-mediality (users of new media often are
engaging simultaneously with different forms of media),
inter-mediality (the convergence and integration of
different types of media) and portability. Taken
together these phenomena have transformed patterns of
media use and consumption. Whereas in the past, we
tended to see the reader, listener or watcher of media
as a passive spectator of centrally generated content,
it is clear that today we must understand the audience
as more selectively and interactively engaging with a
wider range of media. The logic of communications has
been radically changed
— the focus on the media has been replaced by a
concentration on the audience which is increasingly
autonomous and deliberative in its consumption of media.
The new media undoubtedly offer the Church a greater
opportunity to disseminate the Word of God more widely
and more directly. It is possible, using the new
technologies, to present the timeless message of God's
love for his people more attractively and in ways that
may engage new audiences. We need to study and
understand the new patterns of media use and how they
affect the formation of public opinion. We need to
understand better how our message is being heard and
understood by different audiences. We have always, and
rightly, been attentive to the content of our teaching;
today we must be more attentive to our audience, or the
multiple audiences we address, and understand their
concerns and questions. We need to understand better,
and take account of, the contexts and environments in
which they will encounter the Word of God. The emergence
of the Internet as an interactive medium, where users
seek to engage as subjects and not just as consumers,
invites us to develop more explicitly dialogical forms
of teaching and presentation.
The Word of God forges communities of believers.
Proclamation of the Word of God in a digital age
requires that we are attentive to the importance of
digital communities and networks. These communities are
formed by the active engagement and contributions of the
participants who create them. We must enable the
believers of our times to bring the Eternal Word into
these new communities; we must form them so that they
can address the questions and needs of their
contemporaries. In his recently published Message for
World Communications Day, Pope Benedict addressed
himself particularly, albeit not exclusively, to the
digital generation. He entrusted the evangelization of
the digital continent to young Catholics: It falls, in
particular, to young people, who have an almost
spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication,
to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of
this "digital continent." He also alerted them to be
attentive to the specific culture of this continent: The
proclamation of Christ in the world of new technologies
requires a profound knowledge of this world if the
technologies are to serve our mission adequately.
This "digital continent" is a virtual one, with no
physical dimensions but where almost one-third of all
humans
— especially the young and children, but also
common citizens, scientists, academics and
businesspeople
— come together to seek information, to express
their views and to grow in understanding. In this
nowhere land of shared time and meanings, individuals
encounter other individuals, communities, associations,
and institutions. The old means of communications are
integrated in a new paradigm of interaction: books,
press, radio, movies and TV reinforce their contents and
echo through the Internet.
There they are re-interpreted by millions of people who
recreate and transform the messages by giving them their
own new meaning and by sharing them with others. God and
religion are not excluded from this mediasphere; quite
the opposite, both have a new social role in it, and are
subject of debate in a kind of global "search for
meaning." The Church is part of this chorus, one voice
among others, proclaiming the image of God which the
Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel.
The Church is already well established on this
continent. The Holy See, many Episcopal Conferences and
Dioceses and significant numbers of parishes, religious
orders and Catholic organization have Websites. Many
bishops, priests, religious and lay people are present
on the Web with blog sites, podcasts and video content.
Others have developed Web sites that promote
spirituality, justice, care of the environment and
promotion of the value of life. There is even a social
network developed specifically for Catholics, XT3.com,
as well as many personal and institutional presences on
the better-known social networks. The Church is present,
but so far we are just at the beginning of a journey. We
need to develop a more strategic and integrated
presence. We must move forward together to ensure a more
efficient, articulated and cohesive presentation of the
Good News. We must enhance communion between the
thousands of initiatives that are already emerging. Each
one has it own particular charism and rationale, but
each one is called to reflect the universal mission of
the Church. The new digital culture has strengthened the
possibilities for networking and is leading to various
forms of collaboration; the Church has always understood
itself as a "network." In the best networks, each node
continues to be itself but it is integrated into a
greater unity to which it makes its contribution while
being supported and complemented by the contributions of
other nodes.
In this regard, I wish to highlight a project currently
being developed in collaboration with the Pontifical
Council for Social Communications. Intermirifica.net is
a new universally accessible Web database of Catholic
radio and television broadcasters and producers. The
database will be interactive so that registered users
can update their own profile. The goal is to help
Catholic media personnel to network with one another
through a centralized, and in part, user-managed
database. The site is still being tested and has yet to
be translated into English and French, and hopefully
other languages. The hope is also to expand the database
to include listings of Catholic podcasting, news
agencies, newspapers, and the communications departments
of Catholic universities.
I would like to conclude my speech by commenting on the
recent initiative of the Holy See to launch its own
channel on Youtube. This event, which attracted
extraordinary levels of media attention, is just one
example of how the Church is looking to the new media as
a way of communicating its message to the world. I was
somewhat surprised with some of the reactions to this
initiative. One of my colleagues said he thought the
Pope was "letting himself down" and that the initiative
was "beneath" him. I think this attitude betrays a lack
of awareness of the motivation for this initiative; it
is not a "media stunt" to attract attention but is a
sincere effort to bring the Pope's message to one of the
places where young people, especially, are to be found.
It provides them with direct access to his presence and
his teaching. Just as recent Popes have made great
pilgrimages to every corner of our world; it should not
surprise us that Pope Benedict is setting out to the
corners of the digital world in his determination to
bring the Good News to all. This initiative also
represents an effort to take a step into the world of
"inter-activity," the new service allows those who visit
it the site to post comments. While these comments are
not being published and it is not yet possible to begin
to respond to them; they will be studied with attention
and will help the Church to listen to new voices.
The Church is committed to engaging with the new
media and the new culture of communication they are
bringing into being: We must be willing to venture forth
with faith and with a willingness to learn as we
journey. The commitment to reach out to others requires
that we are willing to change in order to be more
eloquent and more authentic witnesses to the faith that
we proclaim. The evangelization of the media and by the
media cannot happen without "metanoia" or conversion in
our lives. The often quoted observation of Marshall
McLuhan
— the medium is the message
— finds a renewed pertinence in this context.
"For from the fullness of the heart, the mouth sings. A
good person brings forth good out of a store of
goodness" (Matt 12, 34-35).
In this year of Saint Paul, we must be attentive to the
example of the Apostle of the Nations, whose commitment
to proclaim the Good News to all people lead him not
just to travel tirelessly but also to strive selflessly
to understand those he wished to evangelize.
Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself
a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. To
the Jews I became like a Jew to win over Jews; to those
under the law I became like one under the law
— though I myself am not under the law
— to win over those under the law. To those
outside the law I became like one outside the law
— though I am not outside God's law but within
the law of Christ
— to win over those outside the law.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have
become all things to all, to save at least some. All
this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may
have a share in it (1 Cor. 9, 19 -23).
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