Reviving the questions

“I exhort all media professionals not to tire of nourishing in their heart that passion for man that draws ever closer to the languages he speaks and to his true face”. Benedict XVI addressed participants in the conference titled: “Digital Witness: Faces and Languages in the Cross-Media Age”, (Rome April 22-24) during the concluding session held in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican. Over 1300 participants from 227 Italian dioceses, and over 250 accredited media professionals attended the three-day Conference, promoted by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), which delved into the relationship between the Church and the new media eight years since the “Media Parables” conference. “The task of every believer who works in the media is that of opening the door to new forms of encounter, maintaining the quality of human interaction, and showing concern for individuals and their genuine spiritual needs” and “thus help the men and women of our digital age to sense the Lord’s presence” since “this is the Church’s mission that she cannot renounce”, said the Holy Father. Fidelity to the Gospel. The Church must look at the digital world “with sympathy and esteem”, “since the commitment of understanding and planning the presence of the Church in the digital media environment” requires “delving into Church action in the present context to identify true forms of fidelity to the Gospel”, recalled Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, CEI President, who guarded against two sets of questions that the “scenarios offered by digital media prompt to the Church’s faithful intelligence and responsibility”. The first refers to “the missionary perspective of cultural animation” namely, “how Christian faith can innervate the realities under way in the construction of personal cultural and social structures”. The second entails “a reflection to identify the paths for Gospel proclamation in contemporary society”. New opportunities. “The presence of Church-promoted media must not be understood as an alternative to other media. Indeed, to this regard, dialogue and collaboration must be intensified”, and “digital technologies represent a new opportunity”, pointed out Msgr. Mariano Crociata, CEI secretary general. “It is not our intention to ‘occupy the web’, rather, we wish to convey our religious witness in this area in order to nourish contemporary culture thus contributing to the construction of our Country’s future”, he added. The CEI secretary explained that communication “is not yet another segment of pastoral care” but rather “the background of a totally and integrally reconsidered pastoral based on media culture and on its effects on human conscience and across society”.Symbolic and poetic language. “Digital media is only the most recent changing scenario that calls us into question, the future that we risk falling back to” and “for those like ourselves, called to verify and disseminate the transformations under way, the mission must not be discarded even if at first glance it seems impossible”. For Msgr. Domenico Pompili, CEI undersecretary and director of the national Office for social Communication, media professionals are called not to “adopt less rational language, but rather a less intellectual, less argumentative and abstract language, to the benefit of a more symbolic and poetic one, highlighting the deep bond between faith and life experiences, the same language of the parable of Jesus”, “that is capable of awakening the senses and of prompting questions on life, of showing the human face of God, of proposing faith in a way that is not alien to the battles and hopes of mankind”. Pluralism of sources. “This is a time of truth, transparency and credibility. Secrecy and reservedness are not the most popular values. We must be able to have nothing to hide”. Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office pointed out that “the price that we’re paying is an indication of the fact that our religious witness ought to be rigorous and coherent as relates to ourselves, opposing hypocrisy and two-sidedness”. According to father Lombardi “we must try to sympathize with the other, identify his questions and mentality in order to undertake the same path together”. In this perspective, “those who love the Church” must “responsibly preserve the pluralism of sources and expressions in compliance with Church Magisterium and authority. Conversely, the community’s tensions risk becoming ungovernable”.