Catholic media, the voice ” “of “Ecclesia in Europa”

To speak of Europe in terms of crossed borders, torn down walls, extended boundaries: even this is a vision – certainly not the only one – of European integration, which began with the first economic Communities (ECSC, EEC) in the 1950s and gradually took shape, increasing the number of participating Countries, its population along with the responsibilities of the institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg. The strong pressure exerted on the European Union over the past years by a severe economic crisis was coupled by a political crisis with strong collateral effects that forced the EU and its member States to undertake a conscience examination, a reconsideration of the pillars underlying the community construction and its very “European identity”. Moreover, this complex process of revision and recovery currently under way, whose outcomes should not be taken for granted, seems to proceed without the full involvement of public opinion and civil society, with the risk of widening the gap separating European citizens and institutions. It’s the “democratic gap” ascribed to the identification process of united Europe, which for obvious reasons calls the media into question. Indeed, the press, TV, radio, websites, have the task of supplying information on political developments at local, national and European level alike. The tools of social communication enable citizens to follow political debates, decisions taken in the “corridors of power”, to be briefed and become informed, in order to become the protagonists of democratic life. To this regard it is widely believed that available coverage of European issues is scarce, fragmented and incomplete, often marked by prejudice and by subtle euro-sceptic implications. Thus it is hard to acknowledge the work carried out by the Commission, EU Parliament and Council, to understand the countless ongoing EU projects in its areas of competence, to establish the outcomes of overall EU action. When in 50 days voters will be called to the polls to elect the new European Parliament, on which grounds will they choose their representative, bearing in mind that, as in the past, the electoral campaign could focus on national issues and controversies rather than on the European scenario? The issue was debated during a meeting organized by Catholic weekly “Voce isontina” in Gorizia – an Italian city on the border with Slovenia, where the fall of the Iron Curtain 25 years ago had a deep impact – in conjunction with the Italian Federation of Catholic weeklies and with the Office for Social Communications of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. Indeed, the theme of the three-day meeting was “Europe and its borders”, with round tables centred on the theme “In Europe as Catholic journalists”. There emerged an information deficit on the European integration process s that could be remedied with the contribution of local newspapers such as diocesan weeklies and of the many Catholic publications in Europe, whose story and vocation makes them naturally close to readers, families, and to all those living in cities and regions. In Italy such newspapers, distributed in millions of copies, are rooted within Christian communities, thereby interpreting the territorial features of the Country without giving in to the temptation of particularisms: newspapers capable at the same time of being ‘frontier’ papers, briefing on a specific diocesan event, and acting as bridges linking local events and the larger context, enhancing that very universalism pertaining to Christian faith. Such ability to preserve firm roots in the cities whilst raising one’s glance over the horizon, could be effectively put to the service of that very European integration called for in the post-war years to restore peace and development in Europe, a continent that today direly needs peace and development, a Europe which the Catholic Church has always addressed with benevolent attention and strong encouragement. Christian inspired media (press, websites and other media channels), present across European countries, could become, through their news commitment, a living part of that “Ecclesia in Europa” described by Giovanni Paolo II in his 2003 apostolic exhortation. These social communication tools that are “close to people” interpret in this direction, and in an original manner, a sort of “informative subsidiarity principle”, bringing an apparently distant Europe, which has become a part of our daily lives, inside people’s homes.