IN DIALOGUE FOR NEW TIMES

In the 40 years or so that separate the Council from the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 the dream of a "global village" has to all practical purposes come true, and today also physically the whole world is encircled in a single informative network, on which the most varied messages travel continuously: iconographic and even sound writings. Even some pages of our magazine can be found on the Internet, which means that "Tertium Millennium" is surely not timid before the challenges of the time.

However, the network, like the great ease with which information can be obtained by other means, poses new problems both for journalists and users, always more frequently, and not haphazardly, ranked together with passive consumers of news. In his message for World Communications Day John Paul II indicates two themes in particular: a responsible choice must be made in the vast amount of news that reaches users, and professional communicators must be particulary attentive that the general but not yet universal easy access to the media does not become a further instrument of inequality and discrimination. As for the Jubilee, the premise is that no topic, of the many related to the event of the end of the millennium - as was "illustrated" by TMA at the time - should have little impact on the great public opinion. Indeed this is precisely one of the strong points; a challenge which, already from the very first moment that the Apostolic Letter was published, seemed clear and extremely all-embracing. Then looking further, after TMA, it can be said that it contains an invitation to bring the important themes which humanity is raising to the attention and conscience of the modern world in this period of transition. A new atmosphere needs to be created, both in the world and in the Church, thus the occasion of the Jubilee must be seized because of the naturally motive force of an event which, more and more, will oblige people to reflect.

Especially enlightening, also for workers in the Catholic mass-media was the Holy Father's reference - during his address to the Central Committee in June 1996 - to the need to create around the Jubilee, the atmosphere which, in its time, characterized the course of the Council. For those who work in the mass-media sector, it is an extraordinary operative indication.

The fundamental lever for the challenge that he intends to issue is the need to be abreast of the times, which inevitably will be new times; in an atmosphere that will make times, subjects, and situations which today seem remote, more compatible and in some way ordinary. So just as it is necessary to be up-to-date and prepared before the new technological possibilities, we must at the same time prepare ourselves culturally to receive and support not a simple organizational fact but a total event.

In this atmosphere it will be necessary to propose appropriate communicative instruments, above all in their contents; and therefore, to take up each one of the important themes and great issues that assail humanity. It is enough to read TMA again to verify these observations and draw from them real journalistic titles or transpositions.

The very organizational structure of the Great Jubilee indicates in its turn some great thematic itineraries. The great commitment, amply stressed by TMA, of ecumenism, the prospects for interreligious dialogue, the ever changing panorama of ideological and historical views, the attraction and suggestiveness of the Liturgy, the preservation and protection of our artistic heritage, the new pastoral Horizons after the New evangelization, the witness of extraordinary figures of early and modern martyrs, the difficult transition for the society of the Year 2000: these are the many great chapters that delineate the guidebook of the Year 2000. Tertium Millennium, from here to the Jubilee, must help us to look quickly through this basic book, at the same time taking care that these contributions are presented in a good journalistic style.

In particular it means taking up a small, great challenge: the challenge of a Jubilee that can transmit and dictate its own favourite themes offering public opinion and the mass-media itself a lofty and at the same time accessible view of a great event of historic importance, but also of very widespread popular impact.

As you can see, journalists, readers and radio and television users are involved. The former, but not only they, are asked to make a special commitment for an ethical approach to the reality of their profession, and to accentuate, also in their daily news reports, the most important themes which span this end of the century. After all, the passing of a millennium encourages a collective examination of conscience which can be done usefully even on the pages of a newspaper or from television screens. We asked the opinion of several professional journalists, mostly - but not only - involved in the area of religious information, about the degree of knowledge with which they and their colleagues face these times. The example we suggested was that of the Council, and of the great renewal that the conciliar age brought to the information sector. We asked them in particular if the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 can help the mass media to discover itself and if today the conditions exist for recreating the conciliar atmosphere in the mass-media.