I ntrepid and creative communicators of the Jubilee message

Sister Antonietta Luccitti

The Holy Father’s message for the XXXIV World Day of Social Communications for the year 2000 was presented at the John Paul II Hall of the Press Room of the Holy See, during the course of a press conference, that was held to coincide with the feast day of Saint Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists and of communication workers (January 24). Monsignor John P. Foley presented the message that will be tied to the jubilee program for pilgrims and journalists and from the world of entertainment along with Monsignor PierFranco Pastore, respectively President and Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. In the course of the press conference, Monsignor John P. Foley emphasized the Church’s particular focus in the means of social communication, especially after the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. In fact, since December 1963, the decree “Inter Mirifica” by which the Council Fathers asked for an institution of a Commission, which has now become the Council for Social Communications. That was followed by a Pastoral Education in Social Communications, published in 1971 with the title “Communio et Progressio,” which was later integrated with “Aetatis Novae,” written in 1992, and was followed by the institution of the World Day for Social Communications -- the only world day which was expressly requested by the Council Fathers – that gathers people from all over the world in Rome. The first world day was celebrated in 1967. From that day on, every year, the date of the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, the Holy Father publishes a Message for the World Day in response to the request of the bishops and of the Episcopal Commissions for Social Communications from all around the world. It is released ahead of the feast day in order to give local parishes the time to prepare various initiatives and  celebrations that are synonymous with the theme of that year. The theme of the World Day for this year is “Announcing Christ through the means of social communication at the dawn of the New Millennium.” “This puts the accent on the necessity of using the social means of communication to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ at the beginning of the New Millennium,” Monsignor Foley commented. He said it was a healthy provocation for the world of mass media, called to question itself on “the trust in communication.” This leads to a serious commitment: to know and impart the laws of modern communication and “integrate, as we say, the Christian message within the culture created by the media.” Year by year, the Messages have indicated many areas of reflection and orientation so that more and more understanding would be placed on the technological and telematic revolution, that the current society is experiencing. This year as well, the Holy Father, in His Message, wanted to give a specific message: “In announcing Christ, the Church must use – with vigor and ability -- its own means of social communication and the Catholic communicators must be intrepid and creative to develop the new means of social communication and the new methods of proclamation.” In any case, the event of the Great Jubilee 20000, the first in the telematic era, has already mobilized “the entire global communication village” and continues to “propose” and question the new culture of the media – on a global scale –without excluding the opportunities that may also be offered by the secular “media.” Only one example is needed from the beginning of this Jubilee eyar. Thanks to the cooperation from RAI, Telespazio and the Vatican Television Center, the opening ceremony of the Holy Doors and the Christmas Midnight Mass in the Basilica of Saint Peter’s were seen by some two million people, the largest audience ever for a religious event in recent memory. But why have a Jubilee for journalists and communication workers? For people, who, in the end, are “committed,” so to speak,  around the clock to report on the jubilee event? The jubilee, as programmed by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in collaboration with the Communication and Documentation Office of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee 2000 – wishes to speak to “the soul and the heart of journalists more than to their pen and the profession,” to use an expression of Monsignor PierFranco Pastore, Secretary of the PCSC. “To announce and to witness Christ, it is necessary to know Him personally,” the Pope writes in his message. The jubilee day, which is scheduled to be held in Rome on June 4, preceded by some three days of intense preparation, (with the arrival set for the afternoon of June 1), intends to offer throughout the program, an opportunity to personally know Christ, and to accompany Him, so that the journalist can proceed in his profession to what Pope Paul VI described as a profession akin to the function of bishops and prophets: that is of “making people think and reflect.” Monsignor Pastore recalled that Christian journalists cannot but feel – in the first person – the weight and the responsibility of “preaching” (in those instances where preaching is communicating), within their own lives and in their profession the jubilee year as a year of Grace from the Lord (cit. TMA, 14). By now, the official program has been presented, though some changes may be made, it has mostly been agreed upon. Some particularly significant events: the “moment of silence and personal contemplation” in the Sistine Chapel, preceded by a small prayer gathering on the afternoon of arrival; the gathering in the portico of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls after the Ecumenical Celebration of the “feast of the Word,” which was incorporated in the program to facilitate dialogue between the “various Christian presence;” the much-anticipated “Audience with the Holy Father.” Monsignor Pastore defined that meeting as: “A great gesture of esteem and friendship on the part of the Holy Father with regards to journalists, especially since he has been defined as the greatest communicator of our time.” Even the “World Jubilee Day for Entertainment,” slated for December 15-17 already has most of its program defined as well. From the Marian celebration to the Penitential one at Holy Cross in Jerusalem; from the moment of the re-evocation of the two thousand years of Christian life at the Basilica of Saint Peter’s at the Vatican, to a Celebration of martyrs in a large field in the capital, where the people in the entertainment realm can express, through their art, the reasons why they chose to accept the invitation of the Holy Father for the Jubilee Day. Also foreseen is an audience with the Holy Father. A closing concert is set to contribute in a particular way, to the three-day Jubilee Celebrations.