Vatican City, 30 September 2015 (VIS) –
This morning in the Holy See Press Office a press conference was held
to present the Baragli Project, entitled “The Church and
Communication”. The speakers were Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli,
president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Fr.
Franco Lever, professor emeritus of the Faculty of Social
Communication Science at the Pontifical Salesian University and
consultor of the same Pontifical Council, and Paolo Sparaci,
professor at the same university.
“The PCCS is very pleased to support
the Baragli Project”, affirmed Archbishop Celli. “The primary
function of the PCCS, in accordance with the mandate given to it by
Vatican II, is to promote the importance of communications in the
life of the Church. Communication is not just another activity of the
Church but is at the very essence of its life. … This project is
particularly valuable because it brings together, and makes available
to a wider public, a long tradition of teaching and reflection by the
Church precisely on the centrality of communications”.
“The material themselves are hugely
significant as they show how the Church has, throughout its history,
sought to engage with the changing means and forms of communication
which have shaped culture and human society. This collection enables
us to appreciate how the Church’s manner and means of expressing
its message have been transformed over the years in order to take
account of changes and developments in the dominant forms and
technologies of mass communication. … What one sees is a constant
effort on the part of the Church to ensure that the Good News of the
Gospel is made known to its contemporaries in ways that are
culturally appropriate and that fully realise the potentials of new
models of communications and developing technologies. The publication
of these materials on-line will provide the raw resources which will
enable theologians and communications scholars to deepen their
reflections on how the Church today should fulfil its responsibility
to share its message with all people”.
Fr. Level explained that “'The Church
and Communication' is an 'online digital library' [that] gives access
to excerpts chosen from over 1,100 documents, translated into various
languages, from the first to the twenty-first century; features a
'navigator' which helps to explore available online sources; offers a
platform for reading and personal study; and provides an open
environment for collaboration. The site is geared towards those
interested in the subject, and especially those working in Church
educational and formation centres which do not have large libraries”.
“After some years of preparation, the
beta version in Italian is going live today and can be found at
www.chiesaecomunicazione.com. The purpose is to share what has been
put together so far, to gather feedback and to finalize development
of the definitive version in the coming months”.
At the same time, he added that 'The
Church and Communication' will always be a work in progress with
respect to three areas of ongoing development:
“Expanding the archive: not only
adding future documents of the Magisterium, but widening the range of
documents presented, including those from episcopal conferences
(Latin America, Asia, USA, Africa, Europe), together with
particularly significant contributions from individual bishops
(example, the works of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in the field);
consideration will also be given to documents from the Orthodox
Church and the evangelical churches, especially the World Council of
Churches and the Anglican Communion”;
“Creating a network of collaborators:
an indispensable effort in order to offer translations of documents
and background notes, also to discover new sources and evaluate their
acquisition and inclusion”; and
“Offering new instruments and
methodologies through the IPERNOTE publication platform, which
features and tests new technologies which favour the shared reading
and study of documents among a community of readers”.
He explained that the idea for this
project was inspired by the figure and works of Father Enrico
Baragli, SJ, (1908-2001), “a pioneer of the church in Italy with
his study of the 'means of social communication'. … The origins for
this project go back to 1998 when Father Baragli gave permission to
Fr. Franco Lever to use his writings”, he concluded.
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