Church media: let’s follow John and Paul
Next week The Southern Cross will observe Social Communications Sunday, looking at various means by which the message of our Church is disseminated.
It is no idle speculation to suppose how Jesus would have exercised his preaching ministry had the Father chosen to present his Son to the world in 1970, not 2000 years ago. Without a doubt, Jesus would have used as part of his mission both church and secular media. He also would have made a point of including among his apostles at least one accomplished journalist, with an acute sense for public relations.
Jesus’ most competent publicist might have been John, whose byline features among the four Gospels as well as on his three letters and the book of Revelations. Students of the rise of Christianity–as, indeed, readers of the Acts of the Apostles–will need no reminding that St Paul was an eminent social communicator, perhaps history’s most influential exponent of propaganda (in the true sense of the word).
The Church Fathers, with their prolific writings, maintained the Church’s need for social communications, as did those Christian writers who came later.
In the 20th century, Pope John Paul has demonstrated how the Church can make its message heard above–or at least alongside–the many contemporary distractions. It is worth noting that the pope’s pontifical moniker comprises the names of the two most productive contributors to the New Testament.
Communication, as the term implies, is a two-way street. Without an audience, the communicator merely shouts into the wind. Alas, today’s many secular diversions and prejudices have made it difficult for propagators of the faith to find a large audience.
Moreover, many of those who should by virtue of their position welcome, embrace and promote Catholic social communications fail to do so, often for reasons they themselves are unable to articulate. Unaccountably, many in a position of influence are indifferent or even hostile to the Catholic media. It is no wonder that the laity, by and large, buys the mass circulation Sunday newspaper instead of The Southern Cross, or the weekly gossip magazine instead of Trefoil.
The evident vibrancy of the Catholic media apostolate in Southern Africa should be a source of pride and energy for the local Church. Next week’s special supplement on social communications should serve as a reminder of that.
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