Sergio Zavoli: the Jubilee a challenge for information

Vito Magno

Sergio Zavoli, how is the media treating the Jubilee?

I do not pass judgement. I know that television – specifically the one which has also institutional duties - is devoting a punctual and organic programming to the Jubilee. I believe that, thanks to the worth of the people committed in carrying it forward, television is maintaining its promises. Rather, I ask myself if, when the logic of the event will be exhausted, religious information will be returned to its spaces, or, to its boundaries.

So, the Jubilee, re-proposes the problem of the relation between the media and religious information.

Certainly. We need to reflect on the way in which the media treats the Jubilee also to re-consider the problem of religious information., that is, the relation between communication as such and the part, in reality a little special, which is addressed to subjects that are particularly delicate, turning to people with specific perception. Christians are facing a Jubilee that will not remain foreign to an exalted reality, but also complicated by the times that we are living: the Jubilee event, therefore, represents the challenge in which to experiment a renewed relationship between the media and the so-called communication of values, be they religious or lay, moral or civil ones; from here the need to include the Jubilee in the great communicative context for the diverse and different meanings, individual and universal that are given to its ancient and present history. I believe, however, that religious information – including that on the Jubilee – should not be closed in a sort of enclave in which everything or nearly everything has already been agreed among those who speak and those who listen. I do not think that religious information, to be accredited, needs to be mediated by an ad hoc communicator, that is authenticated by faith.

So, is there a dialogue on the Jubilee, between the Church and the media?

I think two circumstances qualify, from the point of view of its dutiful resonance, this Jubilee of the end of the millennium. Its long preparation and the centrality, in its celebration, of the figure and missions of the pontiff.  Apart from his charismatic figure Karol Wojtyla has deeply transformed the papal role turning it into a concrete apostolic mission, that is also physical, which saw him as a pilgrim in all the continents; he made use of the media in a significant way as instruments of evangelisation, he crossed many thresholds of hope, from the one of the Rome synagogue to the one of Fidel Castro in Cuba; he asked for forgiveness from the Protestants  and the Jews for the sins carried out against them by the men of the Church; he attracted the attention of world politics to himself and was listened to be intellectuals of all cultures and religious beliefs; he called the Jubilee as a great purification of the memory. So, the territory on which to measure the possibility of new dialogue is the great set of the media. The propitious opportunity is the Jubilee.

Which suggestions would you make to the media to help them understand the profound essence of the Jubilee?

In times addressed at a fundamental and pragmatic choice, the media should take on a new way of reasoning in its laity and propose itself as a strength not only in thought, but also in the soul. It’s the very call made by a Pope to create braver and more advanced frontiers to philosophise and feel timely with reason. For example, the task of the media, everyday, should be to reanimate the person and the community; that is, to interpret reality identifying the paths, mediating the individual and collective paths, in the spirit of a freedom never removed and never granted. It will increasingly be necessary to inform, but also to be able to hesitate on the news, to understand the sense, the judge it.

The themes of the 34 World Youth Days

1967       The means of social communication (in general)

1968       The press, radio and television and cinema for the progress of people

1969       Social communications and the family

1970       Social communications and youth

1971       Social communication means to the service of the unity of men

1972       Social communications to the service of truth

1973       Social communications and the affirmation and promotion of spiritual values

1974       Social communications and evangelisation in the contemporary world

1975       Social communication and reconciliation

1976       Social communication in the face of the fundamental rights and duties of man

1977       Advertising in social communication: advantages, dangers, responsibilities

1978       The receiver of social communication: expectations, rights and duties

1979       Social communication for the safeguard and development of infancy in the family and society

1980       Role of social communication and tasks of the family

1981       Social communication to the service of the responsible freedom of man

1982       Social communication and the problems of the elderly

1983       Social communication and the promotion of peace

1984       Social communications, instrument of meeting between faith and culture

1985       Social communication for a Christian promotion of youth

1986       Social communication for the Christian formation of public opinion

1987       Social communication to the service of justice and peace

1988       Social communication and the promotion of solidarity and brotherhood among men and peoples

1989       Religion and mass media

1990       The Christian message in the current computer culture

1991       The communication means for the unity and progress of the human family

1992       The proclamation of the message of Christ in communication means

1993       Video and audio cassettes in the formation of culture and conscience

1994       Television and family: criteria for health customs in seeing

1995       Cinema, vehicle of culture and proposal of values

1996       The media: modern aeropagus for the promotion of the woman in society

1997       Communicating Jesus: Way, Truth and Life

1998       Supported by the Spirit, communicating hope

1999       Mass Media: friendly presence next to those in search of the Father