VATICAN - During his midday Regina Cæli on Sunday 8 May, Communications Day the Pope says: “each one must play his part to guarantee in every form of communication, objectivity, respect for human dignity and concern for the common good”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - From his study window overlooking St Peter’s Square on Sunday 8 May, Pope Benedict XVI recalled that it since it was the feast of the Ascension (in Italy) and elsewhere the Sunday nearest to it, it was also World Communications Day with the theme this year “The Communications Media at the service of Understanding between Peoples”.
He said the feast of the Ascension encourages Christians “to renew our faith in Jesus the only real anchor of salvation for mankind. By going up to heaven he reopened for us the path to our real home, heaven. Now with the power of his Spirit, he sustains us in our daily pilgrimage on earth.”
Speaking of the media, “which are in effect an extraordinary means of promoting solidarity and understanding in the human family”, the Pope said: “These important channels of communication can foster reciprocal knowledge and dialogue or, on the contrary, feed prejudice and scorn among individuals and peoples; they can help spread peace or foment violence. This is why it is always necessary to appeal to personal responsibility; each one must play his part to guarantee in every form of communication, objectivity, respect for human dignity and concern for the common good. This will help break down the walls of hostility which still divide humanity and consolidate those bonds of friendship and love which are signs of God’s kingdom in history.”
Before reciting the Marian prayer the Pope recalled that after Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples gathered with Mary the Mother of Jesus in the Upper Room to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. “Every Christian community, united with the Most Holy Virgin Mary, lives in these days this singular spiritual experience in preparation for the solemnity of Pentecost. And now we too sing to Mary with the Regina Caeli hymn asking her to protect the Church and in a special way all those involved in evangelisation through the means of social communications. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 9/5/2005; righe 25, parole 348)