The Church realised that it had to enter the pervasive culture of digital communication in order to reach out to younger generations, according to the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi.
The Church viewed the media as a highly positive tool for it helped bring people together, engendered communion and allowed people to grow.
Fr Lombardi, who is also the director general of Vatican Radio, was in Malta yesterday to address a conference in Italian titled ‘The art of communication at the service of the Church’s mission’.
The conference was organised by the Public Broadcasting Services Ltd.
Fr Lombardi also signed an agreement with PBS that will serve to open up avenues in the form of training programmes, technical knowledge-sharing, expertise and productions focused on the key messages of Pope Francis.
“The Church is aware of the risks [of making use of new media] but it is convinced that it must be present. We must swim in the current humanity is moving forth in.
“In order to announce the Gospel, the Church must announce it to where people are living – that is, the spaces created by the new media.”
Fr Lombardi referred to the Pope’s use of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook
While Twitter’s 144 characters weren’t enough to carry the complexity of the Pope’s message, Fr Lombardi pointed out, it was useful in creating a springboard from which the Pope’s messages were able to reach a multitude of people.
Last September, Pope Francis hosted a prayer vigil for peace in Syria, where he let loose a “shower of tweets”.
Facebook, Fr Lombardi continued, was useful for sending out uplifting photographs of the Pope hugging children and the sick.
People working in the media intuitively understood which comforting images the people needed to see, such as when Pope John Paul II prayed in silence on 9/11 and also when Pope Benedict XVI visited Ground Zero.
“The Pope creates currents of peace, love and mercy which the media are glad to pick up and enter into. They understand that through their job, they can help create a positive current.
“There is a positive synergy between the message given out by the Church –and especially by Pope Francis – and the work of the media in servicing humanity.”
He called upon media operators to ensure that they used their tools to create “fountains of blessings”.
Good communication, he added, cared about people and did not serve abstract interests.
He referred to Pope Francis’ words that “good communication must be like the Good Samaritan”.
It was not enough for us to be passersby on the streets and digital highways of our world – we needed to search for violated people and actively help them.
He acknowledged that the media could also be a tool which levelled “negative, and often unjustified and exaggerated criticisms” at the Church.
“In such cases, we should respond with sincerity, objectivity and alacrity. We had to learn that lesson.”