Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb 5, 2010 / 21:36 pm
The president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, called on Catholics communicators at a conference in Brazil this week to make an examination of conscience about whether or not they are living the values they preach in their apostolates.
During the Meeting of Catholic Communications Media of Latin America and the Caribbean, the archbishop said, “Communication is for the promotion of communion” and should be promoted and expressed from within one’s own community.
“The internal communication of our communities is an aspect that we cannot ignore. For this reason, the Holy Father encourages priests, in his Message for the World Day of Communications for this year, to be effective communicators and carriers of Christ in the digital culture,” he said.
“The mere fact that the social communications media multiply the possibilities of interconnection and circulation of ideas does not guarantee freedom nor globalize development and democracy for all,” the archbishop stated.
In order to achieve these objectives, he explained, “The communications media needs to be centered on the promotion of the dignity of persons. And nations need to be expressly animated by charity and dedicated to the truth, the good, and to natural and supernatural fraternity.” Archbishop Celli urged communicators not to forget that their goal should be “the comprehensive development of the person and of the community.”
He also recalled that the mission of evangelization of the Church must also be carried out using the media.
“The first Christians, in a society somewhat similar to our own, did not see their missionary proclamation as propaganda for simply increasing their own numbers, but rather as an intrinsic necessity that derived from the nature of their faith,” he said.