AND NOW...http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/francesco-francisco-francis-30583/12/12/2013
Francis' surprise nomination as “European communicator of the year”“Vatican Insider” interviews the Vatican communications “minister” Claudio Maria Celli
Giacomo Galeazzi
vatican city
Pope Francis will receive a surprise special nomination at an Audience in the Vatican next month as part of the 4th edition of the prestigious International journalism award “Argil: European man”.
The official nomination will take place at 12 noon on Friday 13 December at Spazio Europa, the body that represents the European Commission in Italy. Before that, at 10 am, there will be a round table meeting on building greater communication synergy between the institutions to bring European Union citizens closer together.
“The Pope communicates on a human level.” Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, paints a portrait of Pope Francis. “Fifty years after Inter Mirifica decree, we have moved from social communication media to media culture,” Mgr. Celli tells Vatican Insider.
What are the things that characterise Pope Francis’ communication method?“The Pope focuses on the human dimension of communication. According to Pope Francis, the great digital continent is not just about technology. It is made up of real men and women who have their own personal concerns and are in search of the truth and what is good and beautiful. Speaking of which, I would like to remind everyone that one of the biggest social networks, Facebook, has over 1, 2 billion members and is one of the world’s biggest “countries”, without borders. Many of these people will never step foot inside a church but we have the duty to announce the Gospel message to them too. So the Church and its priests need to be present in this field, they need to evangelize in the net, not via the net, because it is within the environment of the net that I am called to be the person I am.”
What lesson can be learnt from Francis who will tomorrow be announced European communicator of the year and yesterday was named man of the year by TIME magazine?“God speaks to us through daily events and Francis is pushing us towards a spiritual experience that gives current affairs more substance, teaching us to listen to and see God, who never tires of acting in every moment of our lives and history. He teaches us to listen, perceive and recognise the fivine Mystery at every instant; to learn to be reborn with Christ always present in our lives, to fall in love with the Infinite through every fleeting moment, in everything we do! So the Pope asks us: “What are our homilies like? “Let’s do away with interminable, boring homilies no one understands.” Emmaus is a perfect example of courageous communication, which Francis proposed to Brazil’s bishops but is also relevant to us Europeans. “What we need is a Church that is not afraid to enter into their dark hour. What we need is a Church that goes out to meet them along their path. What we need is a Church that is able to join their conversation. A Church that is able to converse with those disciples who after escaping from Jerusalem, wandered aimlessly around without a goal, alone, immersed in their own disappointment, with the disappointment of a Christianity that is considered worldly and sterile, infertile and unable to make sense.”
Is the Council still a strong inspiration to “God’s communicators”?“Inter Mirifica was one of the first docuмents produced by the Second Vatican Council and fifty years on it represents a key phase in the relationship between the Church and communication, albeit containing some weak points which the next magisterium would try to address. This was the first time an ecuмenical Council discussed social communication which contains instruments that are key to the Church’s mission, have a widespread reach and can reach people easily and quickly, generating interest. When the Council was held, the technology available at the time made it possible to experience what was going on in real time. Today, radio, television and print media are accompanied if not surpassed by other marvellous things such as computers, the internet and cell phones. We are witnessing a revolution which had only just started when Inter Mirifica was issued but which still had a profound impact on people’s mindset and lifestyles, albeit through different ways.
But Inter Mirifica was met with strong op position…“A year after it was promulgated, Fr. René Laurentin defined Inter Mirifica as “trivial, preachy, narrow-minded and not very open to the role of the laity.” Pretty much everyone was disappointed with the “prophetic” decree: the “liberals” because its language was still censorious and presented a naïve anthropological vision; “traditionalists” because it did not condemn in a clear manner and showed an excessive openness to instruments that were potentially very harmful for the moral teaching and the integrity of the Catholic faith. A compromise resulted, involving the reduction of more than two thirds of the original contents, with the approved version receiving the highest number of “non placets” in the final voting stage (1960 in favour and 164 against). I still consider Cardinal Martini’s words back in 1991 illuminating: “The media is no longer a screen one looks at or a radio one listens to. It is an atmosphere, an environment in which one immerses oneself , which envelops us and penetrates every part of us. We are immersed in this world of sounds, images, colours, impulses and vibrations, just as primitive men were immersed in the forest, like a fish in water. It is our environment, the media represent a new way of living.” The revolution had begun. Our culture began feeling the shock waves and still does today.”
Where do we need to start from?“From the questions Pope Francis asked at his meeting with the CELAM’s coordinating committee before he left Rio de Janeiro on 28 July 2013. Questions about the internal renewal of the Church, dialogue with today’s world, “The scenarios and the areopagi involved are quite varied … God is everywhere: we have to know how to find him in order to be able to proclaim him in the language of each and every culture; every reality, every language, has its own rhythm.” This speech together with the one he gave to Brazilian bishops constitute a small ecclesiological encyclical that describes what the Holy Father thinks of today’s Church. Communication presumes ecclesiology and this is the true meaning of change. As humans and Christians sent from God, the passion for communication is in our DNA.”
What can be taken as an example?“It is useful to look at pastoral conversion a sit was expressed in Ermano Olmi’s film “Centochiodi”, which champions the authenticity of personal encounter. The film “criticises the modus operandi of a culture that has strayed far away from the shores of the human soul.” It expresses the hope of re-building spirituality from the bottom up, from our material existence, from experience, as if to say: “The truth is not to be found in books but in life and in our encounters with other people.” It is not enough to “reaffirm” to “keep”. The message depends less on the receiver than it does on the sender. The receiver is not a target, they are part of a conversation and part of a giving and receiving process. In the end we communicate who we are, to the extent that, as often happens in the communication process, other elements other than verbal ones are more important. Our testimony and coherence are fundamental.”
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