Reflections on Pope’s Message for World Communications Day 2010

NEW DELHI, Feb. 15, 2010, 16.00 Hrs (CBCI News):

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, President, Pontifical Council for Social Communication, spoke of the Pope’s World Communications Day Message for 2010 during a three-day seminar on communication and information at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), February 13. The meeting was organised by the CBCI Commission for Social Communications, New Delhi and attended by the regional chairman bishops and secretaries responsible for communications in the church in India. The following is the text of his speech.

Stepping back slightly from the text of the message of Pope Benedict XVI’s Message for the World Communications Day 2010, it is important to see that the message is grounded in a number of very clear, if not necessarily explicitly articulated, theological insights. These theological insights are implicit in the message; they give it a shape and ground its specific perspectives and conclusions.

First, we find in the message of the Pope this year a very clear theology of priesthood. He talks about the priest as the man of God. The word consecrated is used frequently and reminds us of the sermon of the Holy Father on Holy Thursday last year when he spoke about how the priest is consecrated, is set apart, is given to God and continues to give himself to God.

At the core of this consecration is precisely the priest’s relationship to the Word of God. Again in the message we are told that priests should be witnesses to the Gospel. They should be in constant dialogue with the Gospel. They should come with the Gospel in hand and heart. What the Pope is saying to us here is that the priest’s communicative ministry must begin with his own profound listening to and meditation of the Gospel. It allows the Gospel to make us the kind of people we are. In the words of the liturgy, it is in the Gospel we should live, move and have our being. Therefore, we become people of the Gospel who as the message says will be more notable for our priestly hearts rather than for our technical savvy. The Pope also says that the priest should be an enthusiastic herald of the Gospel.

I think this gives us some indication of the nature of the priest’s involvement in the web. The priest is on the web above all as somebody who will bring the Gospel. The web is a place for enthusiasts. On the web we find enthusiasts and people who are enthusiastic about various projects, ideas, hobbies and aspects of human experience; who are sharing, discussing and learning about their interests. For priests, the web can be a very rich place for them to express their enthusiasm for the Gospel, where they can share their understanding of the Gospel with others, where they can learn from other priests and other experts to grow in appreciation of the Gospel. We now have access to great, rich resources that can strengthen and develop our preaching.

The web is to be understood not just as a place to pass time; we have reasons for being there. This requires that we keep a ministerial focus on our presence. The priest should be present precisely as a priest. Many priests are very competent at the level of technology. Many are particularly good at finding appropriate forms of expression with the new media. These are great talents, but they are not essential. What is absolutely essential is that the priest be a man of the Gospel. You can find the technical know how. You can learn about fluency. You can pay for those services. You can find them in your parish and community; but the priest must bring his own witness and engagement. That is what is indispensable. In a sense, if it is only about technical knowledge and fluency, then we can be a bit like the empty gong that is useless because it is without love.

The priest has to realize that the web can redefine the scope of his activities. Many of the activities of the priest in preaching, writing and reflection can be shared with a wider audience at no greater effort. Working with others, this pastoral output can be adapted and developed in ways that mean a good sermon, letter, message, or a great celebration can be brought to a wider audience. In particular, priests need to be attentive to the fact that there are many young people present on the web and they need to think of how they can reach these young people. It is not that the web presence of the priest is going to replace the traditional pastoral presence; rather, it adds something more, it is an extra layer, often of the very same activity.

The second theological insight that I think shapes much of this message, and it is a classic perspective coming from the theology of Pope Benedict, is the insistence on a developed Christology. Christ is the saviour of all people. Christ is the only one who can save. He is the universal Saviour. He is the unique Saviour. He is the Saviour of all people. His words and his teachings offer hope to all. His love is without limits. The Pope uses a particularly felicitous expression when he says God is near, in Christ we all belong to one another. In the document, we see the consequences of that. For the Pope, the web is a place where we can bring Christ’s message to all people. There is a particular attentiveness in the Pope’s message to those who are far from the Church; those who are unsure and uncertain; those who perhaps doubt, but whose doubt is in fact a point of openness. They are searching, especially those who do not yet know Christ. And we need to be attentive to this because the message of Christ, which is the only message that offers fundamental hope to human beings, has been entrusted to us and we must bring it to others.

Therefore, we need to have an engagement and openness to others. The Pope’s message is strong on this sense of how we can reach out and engage with others. The Gospel message is not just something for us or to keep for our own benefit; otherwise, we have failed Christ.

We also find in the message a very strong theology of culture. For the Pope, culture is where and how people express their deepest sense of who they are. We do this in the political structures we create. We do it in and through our art and literature, through our forms of community living. The Pope has long insisted on the need for believers to be present in the formation of culture. We need to be present through rational discourse where we bring the insights of faith to bear though our reflection on human wellbeing. The Pope has been very strong on the interplay of faith and reason. We need to ensure artistic expression is touched with the message of the Gospel: at a major gathering recently in the Vatican the Pope gathered artists and invited them to open the human spirit to the transcendent message of God’s love. When the Pope speaks about music, something he is truly passionate about, he is able to talk about the capacity of music to enrich and nourish the soul, to keep alive that yearning and searching that is distinctively human. In his latest encyclical the Pope has reflected on how we need forms of social solidarity, of living together, that ensure that we bring the deepest human values to our political and economic structures. For the Pope, the web opens up a possibility of there being a place, a forum, an agora where there can be debate and dialogue. Believers must be present there bringing the insights of our faith into the debates that will happen. The Pope is very clear that new technologies on their own will not achieve this objective: Just because social communications increase the possibilities of interconnection and the dissemination of ideas, it does not follow that they promote freedom or internationalize development and democracy for all. To achieve goals of this kind, they need to focus on promoting the dignity of persons and peoples, they need to be clearly inspired by charity and placed at the service of truth, of the good, and of natural and supernatural fraternity. Caritas in veritate, 73.

I would also like to point out what the message is not. The message is not a manual. It is not an instruction telling people what means they should use and how they should use them. The message presumes that well-formed priests will have a familiarity with the new technologies. And the message presumes that they will get training in the types of language and expression that are new and appropriate to the latest technologies. The message in many ways takes this dimension for granted. This is primarily a message that hands on the task; this is an exhortation saying to us that we have to be present; we have to develop our capacity to bring the Gospel into the new forums. Above all, it is saying to us that we need to take up that task at the local level. That is a challenge for us at the Pontifical Council to support those efforts and to ensure that proper structures for training are offered, remembering always that at the core of our training is not simply developing the skills of a technician, but rather the heart of the communicator. We need to inspire people with a sense of why communications is important, making them communicators first and foremost.