Cardinal Bagnasco calls on media to 'build up' individuals

Rome, Italy, Jan 27, 2010 / 16:55 pm

While celebrating Mass on the feast of St. Francis de Sales, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco addressed members of the media, emphasizing the importance of their task to provide for the internal and external needs of the human person.

St. Francis is the patron saint of journalists and the Catholic press.

During the Mass, which was celebrated in the studio of the RAI Italian Television Network, the cardinal, who is the president of the Italian bishops' conference, stressed that while the media can obscure and destroy, it can also “illuminate, encourage and build up the human person via the truths they convey.”

Therefore, the media have “a serious responsibility” in the construction of the “home,” in a metaphorical sense. Not just the physical house, but “a place where human beings can be content and can recharge themselves in order to live.”

This “house,” also needs a “street” to provide contrast and balance for the individual. The “street” represents what goes on “out there,” but is still of interest to the person who realizes that there is a greater story to be told than just their own.

However, the “house” and the “street” are not enough to fulfill the human heart, continued the cardinal. “A third element, ‘heaven,’ which consists of remembering moral values, must be acknowledged.”

The aspect of “heaven” exists so that the “house” does not become “something suffocating.” “It is the Lord Jesus who opens the gates to heaven,” mused Cardinal Bagnasco.

He concluded his homily by exhorting his audience and the media to “allow yourselves to be guided by the desire to serve individuals and society.”