44th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY
The essential task of the priest is to announce the Word of God made flesh; made man in human history. The efficacy of this ministry requires that the priest himself should have a profound relationship with Christ, rooted in a deep love and knowledge of Sacred Scripture, the written witness to the divine Word.
The Message for the 44th World Communications Day invites priests, during this Year of the Priest and following on the deliberations of the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to see the new media as a great resource for their ministry as servants of the Word and encourages them to confront the challenges posed by the new digital culture.
The new media, if adequately understood and appreciated, can open up to priests and pastoral ministers a wealth of scholarly and devotional materials that were previously difficult to access and they can facilitate forms of collaboration that were in the past unimaginable. With the support of the new media, those who preach and make known the Word can aspire to reach with their words and images - with a new language specific to these means - individuals and communities across continents and time-zones and to create new communities of learning and dialogue. Used wisely, with the assistance of those who are experts in the technologies and the culture of communications, the new media can become for priests instruments of profound evangelization and communion. They will be a new form of evangelization by means of which Christ can continue to walk the streets of our cities and stand at the threshold of our homes: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3,20).
____________________
World Communications Day, the only worldwide celebration called for by the Second Vatican Council (Inter mirifica, 1963), is celebrated in most countries, on the recommendation of the bishops of the world, on the Sunday before Pentecost. The announcement of the theme is made on September 29, the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel, who has been designated as the patron of those who work in radio. The Holy Father's message for World Communications Day is traditionally published in conjunction with the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, patron of writers (January 24), to allow bishops' conferences and diocesan offices sufficient time to prepare audiovisual and other materials for national and local celebrations.
