President of Pontifical Council: In media-driven society Church must not remain isolated

Madrid, Spain, Oct 10, 2006 / 22:00 pm

During the inaugural address of the World Congress of Catholic Television, the President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop John Foley, said that “in a media-driven society,” the Church “must not remain isolated” and he called for “greater creativity” in Catholic television in order to offer content “in the forms understood in society today.”

“This congress is very important because of the media moment in which we are living and that demands of us a more harmonious and united presence.  We cannot remain isolated, each involved in his own individual struggle with our backs turned to the rest,” the archbishop said, adding such an attitude “weakens the voice” of the Church and makes it “more dispersive.”

Archbishop Foley said technological changes mean the media industry “demands professional-quality content” and “enormous quantities of audiovisual material in very distinct formats.”

In order to address this situation, he said, the Church must “be capable of renewing her creativity to offer content in the forms understood in society today.”

Likewise, he continued, the Church “must be conscience of the leading role of communications in today’s world, of the convergence of the traditional media with those of the new technologies and of the phenomenon of globalization.”