Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
San Jose (Agenzia Fides) - At the House of the Poor Clares in San Jose de Costa Rica, on 1, 2 and 3 December 2010, the Presiding Bishops and Executive Secretaries of the Commissions for communication, the media and those responsible for RIIAL for the Episcopal Conferences of Central America and Mexico met. The objective was to explore the theme of communication. In the message published by the participants, of which a copy was received by Fides, the current situation in the area is presented, including the nature of communication and the rapport between evangelization and means of communication.
The key message may be found in this paragraph: “We understand the mission, communion, evangelization and witness as the actions of the missionary disciples in communicating Christ and his message. In this sense, it should be clear that when the members of the Church - acting according to the Gospel - are evangelizing they are communicating and when they are communicating they are evangelizing.” The message continues: “The Church can not make the mistake of evangelizing with old structures, or ignore the media and new technologies. In using them at the service of the Gospel, they offer the possibility to augment almost without limit the scope for hearing the Word of God.”
The message ends with the requests that are in some way, taken from the suggestions of the document of Aparecida: to gain knowledge of a new culture of communication; to promote professional formation; to give special attention to the directors, programmers, journalists; to promote the creation of means of communication in the Church and make its presence felt by the existing media; to educate in critical formation, to promote a new culture that can protect children and young people; to develop communication policies for the pastoral care of more effective communication. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 06/12/2010)
