What is World Communications Day?
Every year, on the Sunday before Pentecost, the Church celebrates the achievements of the communications media and focuses on how it can best use them to promote gospel values.
Why it is celebrated every year?
In setting it up on Sunday 7th May 1967, less than two years after the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI, knowing that the Church is truly and intimately linked with mankind and its history, wanted to draw attention to the communications media and the enormous power they have for cultural transformation
The Internet
In 2002, The Pontifical Council for Social Communications produced two documents on the Internet. The first is an analysis of the opportunities and challenges the Internet presents for evangelisation and is entitled The Church and Internet. The other sets out an ethical code which should guide its use and is entitled Ethics in Internet.
When was it Established?
World Communications Day was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration that encourages us to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motions pictures, radio, television and the internet) afford the Church to communicate the gospel message.
The Communications World: First Areopagus of the modern age
Pope John Paul II (1990) in his encyclical Redemptorismissio 37 said: “The world of communications is the first Areopagus of the modern age, unifying humanity and turning it into what is known as a ‘global village’. The communications media have acquired such importance as to be for many the chief means of information and education, of guidance and inspiration for many people in their personal, family and social behaviour. In particular, the younger generation is growing up in a world conditioned by the mass media.”
Where did it come from?
The celebration came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, which realised it must engage fully with the modern world. This realisation is expressed in the opening statement of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes on “The Church in the Modern World”, which says: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anguishes of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anguishes of the followers of Christ as well.”
Analysis and Action
Two important documents of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications – Communio et Progressio (1971) and Aetatis Novae (1992) have presented an analysis of the world of the communications media and made recommendations for the Church’s action. The Vatican itself has set a headline in updating its use of the full range of the communications media. On a recent visit to Vatican Radio, Pope Benedict was presented with an iPod of the music of Mozart in which he has a particular interest.
“COMMUNICATIONS WEEK FULL DETAILS”
(Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, Archbishop of Owerri Archdiocese & CBCN President)
We are thrilled as the Church in Nigeria takes this great stride to celebrate the first Communications Week (ComWEEK), as an expansion of the World Communications Day, following its unanimous approval by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).
In keeping with the 55 years tradition, the Holy Father invites us during this year’s World Communications Day to reflect on the theme: “Listen with the ear of the heart.” He emphasises the “great need to listen to one another” because, “freely giving of our own time to listen to people is the first act of charity.” The continuous call on the Church to “listen” is not accidental, since it is the panacea for peace in the world, which is based on justice.
Daily, we come across neighbours, strangers as well as family members whose only need is to be heard. This very important element of communication, listening, is more of a skill than a natural endowment. The ComWEEK programme therefore affords us, among other things, the opportunity to learn to listen to one another.
We commend our National Directorate of Social Communications, under the able leadership of Very Rev. Fr. Michael Nsikak Umoh, for producing this daily programme of activities for use during the whole week of media literacy in the Church and for making it available in this booklet, as well as on the comweeknigeria.com and the Nigeria Catholic Network (nigeriacatholicnetwork.com) Apps.
We commit the success of this initiative to God through the intercession of our Mother Mary, who teaches us how to listen to the voice of God and how to do His will.
