“Certainly this is a delicate moment and we have to pray…..the theme will be communication as an instrument of peace, how in our daily lives, we can create an atmosphere and a reality of peace that we can touch with our hands…”
These are the words of Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. It seems to me his words are not very clear, but of course we are missing the full context of which he spoke. What is clear, however, are his actions.
Our friends at Vatican Radio, news.va, have reported in an article entitled, “Christian media in the Middle East” that “the Archbishop, who arrives in the Jordanian capital on Sunday evening, will take part in a seminar on the role of Arab Christian media at the service of justice, peace and human rights, as well as a conference on new models of social communication as part of the Church’s new evangelization.” This is certainly a key topic for us.
The Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land has been striving to increase its communication about its mission to safeguard the Christians presence in the Holy Land through development of social media, including press releases, news articles, a blog site and monthly e-newsletters. Doing so helps us to use social communications to accomplish the very goal the Pontifical Council for Social Communications seeks to address, namely, the establishment of “Christian media at the service of justice, peace and human rights…”.
Please pray that these seminars will be illuminative and productive. Peace is needed and justice is only now a hope.