What is the impact of digital communication on thinking and
living the faith? Can the virtual encounter be communication and an
opportunity for an authentic encounter? And how can Christian witness be
expressed in the digital universe? These are some of the questions
which the bishops with responsibility for social communications in
Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences, accompanied by their experts, will tackle
in Athens in the light of Pope Francis’ Message for the 2014 World
Communications Day.
The meeting, promoted by CCEE’s Commission for Social Communications, chaired by His Lordship Mgr José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre ,
Bishop of San Sebastian (Spain), will also be attended by the President
of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, His Grace Mgr Claudio Celli .
In Athens, the 30 participants will be helped in their reflections by experts in the field of social communications, such as Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ , director of the journal “La Civiltà Cattolica”; Prof. Arturo Merayo Perez , lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Sciences at the University of Murcia (Spain); and Fr Roderick Vonhögen , founder of Star Quest Production Network and Trideo TV (Holland).
The meeting will also include a presentation about the work in the field
of social communications undertaken by the Media Office of the Greek
Bishops’ Conference, given by its director, Sebastianos Roussos .
On Wednesday 5 November, the participants will visit Corinth. During the
trip, the Apostolic Exarch for Byzantine Rite Catholics in Greece, His
Grace Mgr Dimitrios Salachas , will offer a reflection on The communication of Saint Paul from the Areopagus to Corinth.
In the course of the meeting there will also be interventions from the new Archbishop of Athens, His Grace Mgr Sebastianos Rossolatos , and the Apostolic Nuncio to Greece, His Grace Mgr Edward Joseph Adams .
The meeting is not open to the public. The complete programme is available at the CCEE website ( www.ccee.eu ) along with a thematic introduction to the meeting….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has written to the bishops of France as they begin their Autumn Plenary Session gathered in the Sanctuary in Our Lady of Lourdes .
In the message written by Vatican Secretary of State, Card. Pietro Parolin on the Holy Father’s behalf, the Pope praises the solidarity that the bishops have shown with the suffering Church in the Middle East and he calls them to always be a Church with its “doors wide open” for people and their life’s difficulties.
Below a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s message to the French Bishops’ Conference
While Lourdes is at the Plenary Assembly of the Bishops’ Conference of France, His Holiness Pope Francis wants to show you his spiritual closeness, asking the Lord, through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes, that your work may help to keep alive the missionary zeal of your Dioceses so that they may announce the joy of the Gospel in your country. This assembly takes place in a particular context, as it will be followed by the gathering of seminarians from France and the General Assembly of the religious of France. The Holy Father urges that these events, a prelude to the opening of the Year for Consecrated Life, be a source of comfort and hope for you, the pastors of the Church, but also for all the people of God. The different themes that you have chosen for this session reflect your concern to build a church “with doors wide open,” where there is room for everyone with their life’s difficulties. The Spirit of the Lord leads us to open new paths so that the Word of Life can be offered to all. The Holy Father encourages you on the road, difficult and yet so exhilarating, in communicating the love we have received to others. He particularly invites you to persevere in your generous efforts to show your fellowship and that of your diocesan churches with Christians in the Middle East who are sorely tried as well as people suffering in various parts of the world.
Entrusting all the Bishops of France, their collaborators and their dioceses to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette, Pope Francis cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing upon you all.
By sending this message with joy of the Holy Father, I assure you of my prayers for the fraternal success of your work.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has written to the bishops of France as they begin their Autumn Plenary Session gathered in the Sanctuary in Our Lady of Lourdes . In the message written by Vatican Secretary of State, Card. Pietro Parolin on the Holy Father’s behalf, the Pope praises the solidarity that the bishops have shown…
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Vatican City, 4 November 2014 (VIS) – Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Holy See Permanent Observer at the United Nations in New York, spoke at the 69th Session of the General Assembly held on 23 October, regarding the “Eradication of Poverty”. Speaking in English, the nuncio expressed the Holy See delegation’s belief that “countries should develop evidence-based policies and strategies to combat extreme poverty, rather than relying on pre-conceived one-size-fits-all solutions. Analyses and suggested solutions need to be based on on-the-ground expertise and lived experience, rather than on imposed ready-made solutions from the outside, which are not always devoid of ideological colourings”. He also remarked that sustainable development “requires the participation of all in the life of families, communities, organisations and societies. Participation is the antidote to exclusion, be it social, political, economic or cultural”. Another barrier to sustainable development, he noted, is “the exclusion of women from equal and active participation in the development of their communities. Excluding women and girls from education and subjecting them to violence and discrimination violates their inherent dignity and fundamental human rights”. “My delegation wishes to highlight that poverty is not mere exclusion from economic development; it is as multifaceted and multidimensional as the human person. … Other than its more obvious economic expression, poverty also manifests itself in the educational, social, political, cultural and spiritual dimensions of life. … Development is more than the sum total of resources invested into development projects and their measurable material results. … In our efforts to eradicate poverty, we must always return to the foundational principle of our efforts, namely to promote the authentic development of the whole person and of all peoples. Each of us needs to contribute. Each of us can benefit. This is solidarity”….
(Vatican Radio) At Mass in Casa Santa Marta on Tuesday morning Pope Francis noted that deep down people are afraid of God’s gratuity, we find excuses not to go to Him and end up thinking the world revolves around us.
The Pope based his homily on the parable recounted in the Gospel of the Day of the man who gave a great banquet to which he invited many. The Pope said that this parable makes us think, because “we all like being invited to dinners”. But there was something about this dinner that three guests did not like, and these guests are an example of many of us.
One says that he has to go and examine his field, he needs to see it in order to feel “powerful, vanity, pride and he prefers this to sitting at table among others”. Another guest had just bought five oxen and thus is taken up with his business and doesn’t want to waste time with other people. The last guest excuses himself saying that he is married and doesn’t want to bring his bride to the dinner. He wanted to keep her affection all to himself: selfishness”.
Pope Francis noted: “In the end prefer their own interests rather than sharing dinner together: They do not know what it means to celebrate”. This form of self-interest is what Jesus described as “repayment”.
“If the invitation had been for example: ‘Come, I have two or three business friends from a foreign country, we can do something together’, no one would have excused themselves. But what shocked them was the gratuity. Being one among the others, there…this form of egoism of being at the centre of everything..It is so difficult to listen to the voice of Jesus, the voice of God, when you believe that that the whole world revolves around you: there is no horizon, because you become your own horizon. And there is more behind all of this, something far deeper: fear of gratuity. We are afraid of God’s gratuity. He is so great that we fear Him”.
This, he said, “is because quite often our life experiences have made us suffer”, like the disciples of Emmaus who turn away from Jerusalem or Thomas who wants to touch to believe. The Pope then used a popular proverb: When “the offer is so great even the Saint is suspicious”, because “the gratuity is too much”. And when God gives us a feast like this,” he said, we think it is “better not to get involved”.
” We feel safer in our sins, in our limitations, but feel at home; leaving our home to answer God’s invitation, go to God’s house, with others? No. I’m afraid. And all of us Christians have this fear hidden deep inside … but not too hidden. Catholics, but not too Catholic. Trusting in the Lord, but not too much. This ‘but not too’, marks our lives, it belittles us “.
Pope Francis continued “One thing that makes me think is that when the servant reported this to his master, the master is angry because he had been despised. He sends his servant to call the poor, the crippled, he sends him to the squares and the streets of the city. The Lord asks the servant to compel people to come to the dinner. “So often the Lord has to do with us the same: with trials, so many trials”:
” Compel them, for here is the celebration. Gratuity. Compel that heart, that soul to believe in God’s gratuity, that God’s gift is free, that salvation cannot be bought: it is a great gift, the love of God … is the greatest gift! This is gratuity. But we are a little afraid and this is why we think that we can obtain holiness with our own things and we become a little Pelagian eh! Holiness, salvation is gratuity”.
Pope Francis concluded: Jesus “paid for the banquet, with His humiliation unto death, death on a cross. And this is the great gratuity. When we look at the crucifix, we should think of it as an invitation to the banquet. Yes, Lord, I am a sinner, I have many things, but I look at you and go to the banquet of the Father. I trust. I will not be disappointed, because you have paid for everything. Today, the Church asks us not to be afraid of the gratuitousness of God”. “Instead we must open our hearts, do our part as much as we can, because He will prepare the banquet”.
(from Vatican Radio)…