NAVARRO-VALLS: THE ROLE OF THE CATHOLIC PRESS IS TO SERVE

VATICAN CITY, MAR 2, 1999 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls spoke twice at the national assembly of the Latin American Catholic Press Union, which took place in La Habana, Cuba, from February 25 to 27.

"The Media at the Service of Evangelization and Human Advancement" was the theme of the first talk. Navarro-Valls said that the Church is interested in the media from her own perspective, and "considers this activity as a job, a human right and thirdly as an element of the culture of our age and as a means of transmitting values, that is, evangelization."

"Christians see this as an attractive field of professional activity, with specific techniques which must be known and managed, and as a task in which the spiritual and human potential of the person can be developed. That is, it should be seen as a portion of the professional landscape with the capacity to enrich the person with the potential of sanctifying oneself and others."

In the second talk he dealt with the theme of "Discernment and Prophecy in Church Publications." Navarro-Valls assured that Church publications "would case to be press, but would especially cease being Catholic press, if they were to cultivate in any way a lack of attention to the historical framework in which the salvation of the human being is involved. The raison d'etre of the Catholic press is to serve, putting their ideas, means and space at the disposition of others. A Catholic press which pretends not to know about the historical context in which it exists, would immediately fall into a vain and sterile state of self-satisfaction which could only reproduce, as in the case of parallel mirrors, an infinitely boring repetition of itself."

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