At 10:00am this morning, in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the first Plenary Assembly of the Secretariat for Communications which is taking place at the Vatican from 3 to 5 May 2017.
Your Eminences,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am very happy to welcome you on the occasion of the First Plenary Assembly of the Secretariat for Communications, which sees you engaged in deepening your knowledge of each other and in examining the steps that have been made so far by this Dicastery, which I desired in order to establish a new system of communication for the Holy See, and in order to reflect on a theme that is all the more pertinent and evocative for the digital culture.
I thank your Prefect, Monsignor Viganò for his introduction and I wish to express my gratitude to him and to you who are present as well as to all those who have contributed in various ways to preparing the work that is being undertaken in these days.
The subject matter being addressed in this Plenary is one that is very dear to my heart; I have already spoken about it on various occasions. It is a matter of studying criteria and new methods for communicating the gospel of mercy to all people, in the heart of various cultures, through the media which the new digital cultural context makes available to people of our time.
This Dicastery, which will celebrate its second anniversary of existence on June 27 - two candles - is in full reform. We should not be afraid of this word. Reform is not whitewashing things a bit: reform is the process of giving a new shape to things, organizing them in another way. And we must do this intelligently, with meekness, but also, also - allow me the use of the word - with a bit of violence, but good, good violence, in order to change things.
This is a moment of full reform because we are at a moment when a new reality is making steps that cannot be reversed. In fact, in this case, it is not a matter of coordination or of fusing preceding Dicasteries, but of building a true and proper institution ex novo, as I wrote in the Motu proprio that created this office: The current context of communications, characterized by the presence and development of digital media, by the factors of convergence and interaction, demands both a rethinking of the Holy See’s information system, and a commitment to reorganize it, while appreciating what has been developed historically within the framework of communications of the Apostolic See, certainly moves towards a unified integration and management. For these reasons I believe that all of the realities which, in various ways up to the present have dealt with communications, should be incorporated into a new Dicastery of the Roman Curia, which will bear the title Secretariat for Communication. In this way, the Holy See communications system will respond ever better to the needs of the mission of the Church.
This new system of communication arises from the so-called digital convergence. In fact, in the past, every mode of communication had its own channels. Every expressive form had its own medium: the written word in newspapers or books; images in photography and moving images in cinemas or on television, spoken words and music on the radio and on television. All these forms of communication today are transmitted with a unique coding that uses the binary system. In this regard, therefore L'Osservatore Romano, which in the next year will become part of this Dicastery, will have to find new and different ways to reach a growing number of readers, greater than the number that can be reached by the distribution of paper copies. Even Radio Vaticana, which over the years has become a series of portals, will be rethought according to new and adequate modes of modern technology and needs of our times. With regard to the radio service, I would like to point out the efforts that the Dicastery is expending for the sake of countries that have little accessibility to technology (I think for example of Africa) for the rationalization of Short Waves which have never been abandoned. And this I want to point out: they have never been discontinued. For a few months, even the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican's old Multilingual Typographical service and, as I said before, L'Osservatore Romano will be incorporated into the greater community of work overseen by the new Dicastery, and this will require availability and harmonization with a new design of the product and the methods of distribution. There is much work to be done; the challenge is great, but it can be done, it must be done.
History has, undoubtedly, been privileged to witness a precious experience that must be kept and used as motivation toward the future. Otherwise, it would be reduced to a museum, interesting and beautiful to visit, but unable to provide strength and courage for us to continue the journey.
From the point of view of building a new communications system, it will also be necessary to face the challenge of training and updating staff members.
Dear brothers and sisters, the work that awaits us is wide and varied. With each person's contribution, we will be able to bring to completion this reform that enhancing what has developed throughout the history of the Holy See's communication is aimed at united and unifying management (Statutes of the Secretariat for Communication, 6 September 2016).
I therefore encourage you to work in study commissions, with detailed analysis and, once the path has been defined, to decide and to proceed courageously according to the chosen criteria.
I also ask you to make your guiding criteria apostolic and missionary in their nature, with special attention paid to situations of discomfort, poverty and difficulty, aware that even today, these situations must be addressed with adequate solutions. In this way, it will be possible for us to share the gospel with everyone, enhancing human resources without replacing the communication that already takes place in local Churches, and at the same time, supporting the ecclesial community that needs us now more than ever before.
Do not allow yourselves to be overcome by the temptation to remain attached to a glorious past; instead, let us put forth a great team effort in order to better respond to the new communication challenges that today's culture presents, without fear and without imagining apocalyptic scenarios.
While I renew my gratitude for having accepted the invitation to work in this field that is such an important and delicate part of the mission of the Church, I want to add my greeting and my gratitude also for the Consultors who have recently been named. I urge you to bear witness through your collaboration and fraternal sharing, while I invoke upon all of you the blessing of the Lord, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, the Mother of the Church, who, with her tenderness, always watches over us.
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| Pope Francis with Monsignor Darío Viagnò Prefect of the Secretariat for Communications |
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to participants taking part in the
Plenary Assembly of the Secretariat for Communications
Your Eminences,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am very happy to welcome you on the occasion of the First Plenary Assembly of the Secretariat for Communications, which sees you engaged in deepening your knowledge of each other and in examining the steps that have been made so far by this Dicastery, which I desired in order to establish a new system of communication for the Holy See, and in order to reflect on a theme that is all the more pertinent and evocative for the digital culture.
I thank your Prefect, Monsignor Viganò for his introduction and I wish to express my gratitude to him and to you who are present as well as to all those who have contributed in various ways to preparing the work that is being undertaken in these days.
The subject matter being addressed in this Plenary is one that is very dear to my heart; I have already spoken about it on various occasions. It is a matter of studying criteria and new methods for communicating the gospel of mercy to all people, in the heart of various cultures, through the media which the new digital cultural context makes available to people of our time.
This Dicastery, which will celebrate its second anniversary of existence on June 27 - two candles - is in full reform. We should not be afraid of this word. Reform is not whitewashing things a bit: reform is the process of giving a new shape to things, organizing them in another way. And we must do this intelligently, with meekness, but also, also - allow me the use of the word - with a bit of violence, but good, good violence, in order to change things.
This is a moment of full reform because we are at a moment when a new reality is making steps that cannot be reversed. In fact, in this case, it is not a matter of coordination or of fusing preceding Dicasteries, but of building a true and proper institution ex novo, as I wrote in the Motu proprio that created this office: The current context of communications, characterized by the presence and development of digital media, by the factors of convergence and interaction, demands both a rethinking of the Holy See’s information system, and a commitment to reorganize it, while appreciating what has been developed historically within the framework of communications of the Apostolic See, certainly moves towards a unified integration and management. For these reasons I believe that all of the realities which, in various ways up to the present have dealt with communications, should be incorporated into a new Dicastery of the Roman Curia, which will bear the title Secretariat for Communication. In this way, the Holy See communications system will respond ever better to the needs of the mission of the Church.
This new system of communication arises from the so-called digital convergence. In fact, in the past, every mode of communication had its own channels. Every expressive form had its own medium: the written word in newspapers or books; images in photography and moving images in cinemas or on television, spoken words and music on the radio and on television. All these forms of communication today are transmitted with a unique coding that uses the binary system. In this regard, therefore L'Osservatore Romano, which in the next year will become part of this Dicastery, will have to find new and different ways to reach a growing number of readers, greater than the number that can be reached by the distribution of paper copies. Even Radio Vaticana, which over the years has become a series of portals, will be rethought according to new and adequate modes of modern technology and needs of our times. With regard to the radio service, I would like to point out the efforts that the Dicastery is expending for the sake of countries that have little accessibility to technology (I think for example of Africa) for the rationalization of Short Waves which have never been abandoned. And this I want to point out: they have never been discontinued. For a few months, even the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican's old Multilingual Typographical service and, as I said before, L'Osservatore Romano will be incorporated into the greater community of work overseen by the new Dicastery, and this will require availability and harmonization with a new design of the product and the methods of distribution. There is much work to be done; the challenge is great, but it can be done, it must be done.
History has, undoubtedly, been privileged to witness a precious experience that must be kept and used as motivation toward the future. Otherwise, it would be reduced to a museum, interesting and beautiful to visit, but unable to provide strength and courage for us to continue the journey.
From the point of view of building a new communications system, it will also be necessary to face the challenge of training and updating staff members.
Dear brothers and sisters, the work that awaits us is wide and varied. With each person's contribution, we will be able to bring to completion this reform that enhancing what has developed throughout the history of the Holy See's communication is aimed at united and unifying management (Statutes of the Secretariat for Communication, 6 September 2016).
I therefore encourage you to work in study commissions, with detailed analysis and, once the path has been defined, to decide and to proceed courageously according to the chosen criteria.
I also ask you to make your guiding criteria apostolic and missionary in their nature, with special attention paid to situations of discomfort, poverty and difficulty, aware that even today, these situations must be addressed with adequate solutions. In this way, it will be possible for us to share the gospel with everyone, enhancing human resources without replacing the communication that already takes place in local Churches, and at the same time, supporting the ecclesial community that needs us now more than ever before.
Do not allow yourselves to be overcome by the temptation to remain attached to a glorious past; instead, let us put forth a great team effort in order to better respond to the new communication challenges that today's culture presents, without fear and without imagining apocalyptic scenarios.
While I renew my gratitude for having accepted the invitation to work in this field that is such an important and delicate part of the mission of the Church, I want to add my greeting and my gratitude also for the Consultors who have recently been named. I urge you to bear witness through your collaboration and fraternal sharing, while I invoke upon all of you the blessing of the Lord, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, the Mother of the Church, who, with her tenderness, always watches over us.
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