PLENARY OF PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 26, 2002 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray celebrated the opening Mass of the plenary meeting of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications which is taking place from February 25 to March 1.

"Without a doubt, the work of the media is not easy given the complexity of our society and, above all, of the original society that is the Church", said the cardinal. "Evangelization is by its nature an act of communication, and due to professional affinity, the media cannot but focus all its attention on evangelization. Since its beginnings, the Church has been learning about the melting pot of cultures and civilizations, but in this age she has come to realize with sadness that she does not know how to understand or make herself understood by the modern world."

"The harsh confrontation between the Gospel and the world," he emphasized, "today, more than ever, comes about through the media, witnesses of the enormous efforts of the Church, who brings an unchanging Gospel to an ever-changing world. The media help us to understand the dimension of the changes in a society that is in continuous evolvement due to the clash of identities and unstable due to the loss of certainties.

This morning, Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the pontifical council, greeted the participants in the plenary meeting with a welcome speech delivered in the Old Synod Hall.
The archbishop reviewed the motives for the annual celebration of the assembly, among which he enumerated: "to seek the guidance of the Holy Father on matters of communications in and by the Church; ... to provide an opportunity for a type of examination of conscience on the part of all the episcopal conferences of the world regarding what they are doing in the field of communications; ... to integrate the international Catholic communications organizations into the overall pastoral strategy of the Church in communications; ... to help our members and consultors to become actively involved in the development of policy statements by the Church in communications."

The president of the pontifical council went on to announce that two documents concerning the internet, "Ethics in Internet" and "The Church and Internet", will be presented in the Holy See Press Office next Thursday, February 28. "At the beginning of this millennium," he said, "we must hear what is being done and what is being planned in evangelization in and through the media. After these reports, we must decide how such evangelization can best go forward on a global and regional scale."

"Also," he concluded, "we hope to complete our discussion on possible heavenly patrons to be proposed for the work of Catholic communicators: in cinema, internet and, indeed, in the entire field of communication."

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