The cathedrals of the 21st century

In recent days the bishop of Gap (France) Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri, who is also the new chairman of the Commission for the Media of the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences (Ccee), offered a reflection to mark the 10th anniversary of the French Christian Radio (Rcf) of the Hautes Alpes region. The following reflection written by Monsignor di Falco for SirEurope takes its cue from this, but extends its perspective to Europe as a whole.Why a Christian radio station? For the same reasons that urge us to build a church, a parish centre, or create a parish newsletter or an internet service. It has often been said that the media are the new forums in which Christians must be present. It’s not a challenge to tackle, but a duty to fulfil! The aim of a Christian radio station, like that of any other media, is not that of presenting a ready-made thought, but of offering listeners elements of analysis and understanding that may enable them to form their own opinion. It need to avoid confining themselves to a rather simplistic system of thought, of the kind pro or contra, black or white, right or left, good or evil, and so one. Life is too great and complex to allow us to speak in such terms. Opinions on current affairs must always be clarified by the teaching of the Church. Those who work in the Christian media must be in some sense mediators between the Word of God and the world. “The Bible in one hand, the microphone in the other”, one might say. Knowing the Word of God and knowing the world, loving the Word of God and loving the world: these are the conditions sine qua non ! Without ever forgetting that we are never alone. St. Bernadette said: “I am not charged to make you believe it, but to tell you it”. This humility ought always to accompany the work of the Christian media. So it is a case not just of giving information, but also of responding to a specific mission, that of giving witness to the “good news” of the Gospel, in a society, as is European society, in which we speak mainly of bad news.Radio is undoubtedly the medium best suited to the Church. For it is the medium to which the poor and the disadvantaged may easily have access. Those who have no home and no family often have no other company than their own radio. That’s the case of prison inmates in their cells, or the sick in their hospital beds. Thanks to radio, moreover, the Word of God can be heard even in the remotest lands. Many broadcasts of the RCF are followed in many African countries, often in the open savannah, far from any town. During my travels in that continent, the bishops told me about the crucial educational and social that radio plays in areas that are isolated from everything. In such areas radio is often addressed at populations that don’t know how to read or write.Europe also testifies in this way to its Christian roots. People working in the Christian media are “builders”, just like those who built the great European cathedrals. By developing the Christian media they will help build the cathedrals of the 21st century, which will be cathedrals not of stone but of airwaves, so that the Word of God shall be heard in the four corners of every country and of the whole earth.