Where we aren’t expected” “

“Young people want us not to be afraid of the media: let us go where people do not expect us; let us enter the arena when the Church is called to take part in society’s debates and encourage those who do. A Church that is absent or complacent will be respected neither by the media not by young people. She must just be herself”. That’s the invitation that the members of the European Bishops’ Media Commission (CEEM) have sent to their “brother bishops of Europe” at the end of the plenary assembly of the CEEM and the annual meeting of the press officers and spokespersons of the 34 European Bishops’ Conferences, held in recent days in Warsaw and promoted by the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE). Theme of the 2005 meeting, hosted by Archbishop Leszek Slawoj of Warsaw, with responsibility for the media in the Polish Bishops’ Conference: “Who paints the picture for young people? Media, young people’s languages and transmission of the faith”. YOUTH AND COMMUNICATION. Emphasizing that “youth culture is shaped by the world of the means of communication”, the CEEM bishops declared that “the Church is called to inculturate the faith in the new relational forms created by the media that “are a gift of God” and need to be welcomed “in a positive manner”. Hence the exhortation to Church leaders in the continent to “involve the young in pastoral action; incorporate the means of social communication in the pastoral ministry of the Church; and propose new actions, such as the sending of ‘sms’ to organize meetings, participate in Internet forums, or create a multilingual European website: actions that will give “greater visibility to the Church among the young and enable them to discover that the gospel message can respond to their hopes”. GENUINE SYMBOLS. “To speak to the young, symbols must be sincere and genuine, as were the symbolic actions of John Paul II. They cannot be forced or insincere, otherwise they would risk doing more harm than good”, said Archbishop JOHN PATRICK FOLEY, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, in his address to the CEEM plenary assembly. After painting a moving portrait of John Paul II in his last days of life, Archbishop Foley recalled the late Pope’s “gift for performing very moving symbolic actions”. “We are not witnessing or participating in a crisis, but in an epoch-making transition. The young, who are among its leading protagonists, confirm this with their thoughts, their words, their rejection of previous models and lifestyles. In this complex and fluid situation the media play a decisive role, for good or for ill, by offering their view of the world, of history, and of man to the new generations”, said ARTURO MERAYO, Professor of Communications at the Pontifical University of Salamanca (Spain), in his keynote address opening the CEEM assembly. “In this transition – added Bishop PETER HENRICI, president of the CEEM – the Church must be present with her word and her witness which, if they are to be comprehensible and understood, require suitable skills in the use of the media”. GOOD NEWS. “Neither pessimism nor undue optimism must guide the actions that the Church intends to promote in the field of communication”, said GIANLUIGI DE PALO, an Italian youth who together with two fellow youngsters brought his testimony to the assembly. “We need to swim against the tide – added De Palo – if we are not to be conditioned by a system that does not have space for good news”. And he cited the website www.buonenotizie.it that “expresses the wish to give a voice to the positive events that happen in the world”. It is a “little thing that perhaps will make some of you smile – he said – but it’s an example to show how it’s possible with the new technologies to change something”. Merayo himself confirmed this approach by proposing a strategic set of ten commandments, starting out from “a positive vision of the media”, underlining “trust in the laity” and promoting a “journalism of hope”. A PROJECT. In the meeting of CCEE spokespersons, the project for the development of a European service in three languages (Italian, English and French) that the SIR press agency has been offering for three years was presented and shared: a period of gestation during which “a European network” has been gradually built up. It now “permits a more effective and reliable service of information on the European Christian Churches and on the contribution of Catholics to the construction of Europe”. In a perspective of renewed synergies, including the multimedia experience of Signis, a meeting of SIR with the other European press agencies will be held in the months ahead”.