EUROPE/POLAND - Faced with the variety of ways to happiness proposed by the media, the Church teaches another way through meeting the living Christ: final message from Plenary Assembly of the European Bishops' Media Commission

Wednesday, 21 September 2005

Warsaw (Fides Service) - To analyse the current media culture and to try to understand how young people relate to it, in an attempt to discover possible future priorities in the Church's work with and for young people: these were the goals of a Plenary Assembly of the European Bishops' Media Commission (CEEM) Annual meeting of press officers and spokespersons of Europe's bishops' conferences held in Warsaw 14 to 18 September. Every three years CEEM hold a plenary assembly made up of the bishops responsible for media and the press officers and spokespersons of Europe's 34 bishops' conferences, as well as experts and representatives of Catholic communications agencies. Archbhsop John P. Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications was among those who discussed the relationship between young people and the media. Some young participants spoke of their experince with the media and three "producers" of media aimed at young people gave an account of the "philosophy" behind their work. What shone out was an enormous respect for children and a clear awareness of the need to listen hard to the way they communicate with each other.

The final message called on the Bishops of Europe to work towards three goals:
1- involve young people in pastoral activity. Many of today’s audio-visual material, music and films are very rich in terms of spirituality and religion, though often only implicitly. We should know how to recognise and encourage such achievements. This is what ecumenical juries at film and television festivals do, for example. We should not hesitate to invite young people to take part in such events.
2- make media part of the Church’s pastoral work, by investing human and financial resources in media education, on the one hand and, on the other hand, in forming professionals. While the Church cannot cover every field, she needs to make the most of initiatives that correspond to her task and decide on priorities.
3- offer new ideas like: sending SMS messages to invite young people to meetings; taking part in internet forums when this is appropriate; launching a European advertising campaign; creating a multi-lingual European website. Ideas like these will make young people more aware of the Church and help them discover that the Gospel message can meet their needs.
The message ended recalling what young people expect of the Church and its relations with the media: “Young people want us not to be afraid of the media: let us go where people do not expect us; let us enter the arena when the Church is called to take part in society’s debates and encourage those who do. A Church that is absent or complacent will be respected neither by the media nor by young people. She must just be herself.
.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 21/9/2005; righe 31, parole 407)


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