VATICAN - Study Seminar for new Bishops - “The Good News of Jesus Christ can and must be proclaimed through the press, radio, television and the Internet” says Archbishop John P. Foley

Tuesday, 7 September 2004

Vatican City (Fides Service) - “The proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ is the most important communication which human beings can receive and so our main responsibility is to communicate this news in the best possible manner”, American Archbishop John P. Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications said in his address this morning 7 September to Bishops from all over the world taking part in a special Seminar organised by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples in Rome. The Archbishop spoke about “The Bishop and the use of the means of communications” setting his address in a theological and spiritual framework. He asked, “How can we communicate the good news of Jesus Christ?”. Through the good example of a life transformed by Christ, by preaching and teaching of the truths of faith, by helping people to pray, through the Church’s service to the sick and the poor, but also, the Archbishop said “we can and we must communicate the Good News using the means of communication”.
In his address the President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications quoted documents of the Magisterium on the subject, stressing that every diocese is called to draft its own pastoral plan for social communications and that communications must be part of every pastoral plan. In particular Archbishop Foley mentioned the elements which serve to draft a pastoral plan of communications and its aims, as outlined in the pastoral Instruction “Aetatis novae”
“The good news of Jesus Christ can and must be proclaimed through print media, radio, television and the Internet” Archbishop Foley said, adding that the radio is probably the means most used in the countries of the Bishops taking part in the Seminar. “It is less expensive than television, it reaches more people compared to print media and requires less technology than the Internet”. As he concluded his address Archbishop Foley stressed the need to produce radio and television programmes of “the highest possible quality”: “we must offer God nothing but the best and we must not give the impression that what is done in the name of God is always marked by inexperience or neglect... Jesus brought his message to mankind through the witness of his life and we must do the same and this authenticity can be transmitted via radio and television as in our daily contacts”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/9/2004; Righe 29 - Parole 406)


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