Faith, culture and the media” “” “

In Europe’s pluralist society the Catholic Church is only one voice among many: how can we verify the effectiveness of her message and how can we prove to those who accuse her of remaining anchored to the past that her action and words still respond today to the real and profound needs of man in our time? That is the first, but not the last, question posed to the participants at the colloquium of the European Episcopal Committee for the media (CEEM) now being held in Aix en Provence (France) on the theme: “Communicating the faith in the culture of the media in Europe”. An initial question is implicit in the term “communicating the faith” which seems to many inadeguate for expressing an experience that sees the meeting of human limitation with the infinite, that of the visible with the invisible. We need to come to grips with what is normally meant by “communicating” if we want to have a Christian presence in history, if we want to arouse questions about God, suggest replies and open paths of exploration that may lead people to penetrate the mystery. A second question is posed by the eruption of the new technologies that, in their impact on culture and mentality, pose a growing challenge to the old cultures and mentalities, at least in the Church. We need to find a harmonious balance that permits the message to be communicated in different ways without losing in content and coherence. The quality of the message is therefore something we cannot renounce, but it can always be improved. What is growing in the Church is the consciousness that it’s not enough to “do” and/or “be”. We need to transmit, communicate, “enable people to know”, never forgetting the truth of the proverb: “if you speak badly about what you do well, you will make people think badly of it”. We need simple ways of expressing what is complex and difficult, and also what is moving about communicating an experience of faith that considers limitation not as a burden but as an appeal for added responsibility. Realism is however essential. The Church, which sometimes complains of not being properly understood, never forgets that even in Europe many people are ignorant, in whole or in part, of what she is. This question of the many who are ignorant of the Church – a key point on the agenda of the European colloquium – is a priority which needs to be addressed in any project of communication that places a relation of esteem among people as the foundation of the synergies between old and new modes of communication. It’s a question that involves journalists, but also those who read the papers, listen to the radio, watch TV, surf the web … As regards the former, there is a trust to be consolidated and in this regard Lucien Guissard, an exemplary figure of French Catholic journalism, writes: “The word on the press and the media, on ethical standards and practice must not be left to university professors, moralists and censors. These perhaps have the advantage of seeing things from the outside and of not exposing themselves to the suspicion of corporate indulgence, but they often have the disadvantage of not knowing the profession from inside and being ignorant of its practical conditions of work”. As regards the users of the media, also those within the ecclesial community, the need is increasingly felt for the creation of places of formation for the Christian conscience: a kind of formation which is open to the challenge of the media and without any inferiority complex, and which knows how to seek, recognize and propose the essential.