MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XXII WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XXII WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY
Theme: Social Communications and the Promotion of Solidarity and Fraternity Between Peoples and Nations
Brothers and sisters,
my dear friends,
the communicators,
If one day it can be truly said that "to communicate" is the same as "to fraternize", that "communication" signifies human "solidarity", will not this be the most beautiful result of "mass communications"? It is on this theme that I would propose to you that we reflect on the 22nd World Communications Day.
In speaking of fraternity, I use the term in its strict meaning. It is Christ, in effect, "the first-born among many brethren (Rm. 8, 29), who makes us discover in every human person, friend or even enemy, a brother or a sister. Christ who came "not to condemn the world but to save it" (cf. John 3,17), calls all humanity to unity. The Spirit of love which he gives to the world is also a Spirit of unity: St. Paul shows us the same Spirit who grants a variety of gifts, who acts in the different members of Ihe same Body: there are "varieties of gifts... but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one" (1 Cor. 12, 4-6).
