VATICAN TELEVISION CENTRE (CTV): PROFESSIONALS IN THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH

Vatican City, 28 October 2013 (VIS) – The Vatican Television Centre (CTV), instituted by Blessed John Paul II on 22 October 1983, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary and, this morning, as he received its members in audience, Pope Francis remarked, “It has come a long way in these three decades of activity”. Nowadays we find ourselves before new challenges “which we cannot elude, in order to maintain a firm evangelical perspective in this form of global communication highway”.

The Holy Father, after thanking the employees of the CTV for their dedication, and also their families, since “they live according to the Pope's weekly agenda. He advised the workers to “play as a team”, since “the effectiveness of the pastoral of communication is possible when bonds are created, by making a group of people converge around shared projects, in a 'unity of planning and resources'. We know that this is not easy, but if you help each other together to work as a team, the burden is lessened and, above all, also your style of working becomes a testimony of communion”.

“Be professionals in your service to the Church”, he continued. “Your work is of great quality, as it needs to be for the task that has been assigned to you. But your professionalism must always be in the service of the Church, in everything you do: in filming, in directing, in editorial decisions, in administration... Everything must be done with an ecclesiastical style and a perspective, that of the Holy See. It is necessary for the CTV to be able to effuse to spectators, to the faithful and to those who are further away, the perfume and hope of the Gospel”.