Mass Media Committee

AN INFORMATION NETWORK AT THE SERVICE OF RECEPTION

Massimo Aquili

"Communicating" the Jubilee, and not only recording it, is the objective which the Mass Media Committee has set itself from its establishment. The contents of this Jubilee communication have already been generally laid out. The Holy Father placed them in front of everyone's conscience with the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente. Commissions and committees of the same Vatican organisational structure for the Great Jubilee also represent the chapters of that large book which is the event of the end of the millennium. In order to write it, there are indications which can be of immediate use to be turned into journalistic reports. In the same way as far as radio and television communication is concerned, there are ideas for all sorts of programmes, from inquiries to fiction.

Christian unity within the increasingly vast ecumenical movement, an examination of conscience on the reception of the Council also through re-proposing the fundamental documents, the problem of religious indifference, the testimony, rather the return of the martyrs "unknown workers" also today of the great cause of God, the continental Synods, the exhortation addressed to all Christians to once again read the Bible and study the Catechism of the Catholic Church are only some of the chapters mentioned in the preparatory phase in Tertio Millennio Adveniente. And moreover, the Holy Father offers to the attention of everyone and to the particular reflection of mass media operators an anthology of the great hopes which, although among many shadows, continue to make their way at the end of this first millennium: «in the civilian field, the progress attained by science, by technology and above all by medicine to the service of human life, the most lively sense of responsibility towards the environment, the efforts to re-establish peace and justice wherever they have been violated, the will of reconciliation and solidarity among the various peoples, in particular in the different relations between the North and South of the world…»

The Mass Media Committee is working to organise a true and proper system of communication capable of bringing to the attention of all these and the other great Jubilee themes outlined in Tertio Millennio Adveniente. One theme in particular belongs to every Jubilee and obviously to the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000: the reception of pilgrims. The quality of the reception, indeed, also depends on the efficiency and speed of the communication system on the organisation of the event. It refers to a function of service of the information, close to the requirements of the pilgrims especially during the Holy Year.

Gradually, the Mass Media Committee is preparing all the instruments needed to carry out this function. For example, a collaboration plan between Vatican Radio and Rai- Radio televisione italiana is being studied to produce newscasts in the major modern languages. The idea is to broadcast on a completely dedicated frequency, with the task of updating in real time the developments in the daily programme during the Jubilee. One can speak, in this case, at least for Vatican Radio, of a happy return to the past, keeping in mind that a programme of this kind characterised the Holy Year of 1975. It was a success. At the time the programme was presented only by Monsignor Pierfranco Pastore, who currently heads the Mass Media Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

Another important instrument as far as reception is concerned will be televideo. Its use is becoming more and more frequent and more easily accessible. Information files are envisaged with daily updates on television channels and networks. The service will be developed in every part of the world through the use of satellite. And it will be increasingly the medium for a service of information composed of announcements, notices, brief communications, also Agency-bulletin in four languages Tertio Millennium. Today with a fortnightly distribution, the Agency bulletin foreshadows the birth of one of the most congenial communication means for the reception theme: a true and proper daily news agency, via computer, also distributed using the Internet. This type of more immediate and direct information is to be considered as the final destination of the communication system established by the Mass Media Committee and which, from today, is characterised by a function of service first and foremost for the 120 national committees present all over the world.

Each of them will receive using the floppy-disk system and soon, via the computer network circuit of Telecom, all the elements - texts and photos - of the bimonthly magazine Tertium Millennium so that it can be reproduced by printers in the various countries or so that essential elements can be utilised in their own publications. The same path, in a more rapid manner, that is every fortnight, regards the Agency bulletin. Another initiative of the Committee dedicated to youth falls into a mere dimension of training. On occasion of the XII World Youth Day, Tertium Millennium as the official body of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, has collaborated on the publication of a booklet-pamphlet "The youth on the path towards the Jubilee", printed in four languages (Italian, English, French, Spanish) which was distributed in 500 thousand copies and included in the documentation distributed to participants. The initiative, aimed at informing young people all over the world of the significance and authentic contents of the Great Jubilee, was taken on in agreement with the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the active participation of the Mass Media Committee. Along with the greeting by Cardinal Etchegaray, President of the Central Committee, the booklet contains a small glossary with the key words of the Holy Year, brief historic notes on the Jewish roots of the Jubilee and Christian history, the fundamental moments of the three-year period of preparation and the appointments of the year 2000, some testimonies and a series of "practical" recommendations for the preparation.