2006 - 40th World Communications Day

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER 
BENEDICT XVI 
FOR THE 40th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

"The Media: A Network for Communication, 
Communion and Cooperation" 

[Sunday, 28 May 2006]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,


1. In the wake of the fortieth-anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, I am happy to recall its Decree on the Means of Social Communication, Inter Mirifica, which in particular recognized the power of the media to influence the whole of human society. The need to harness that power for the benefit of all mankind has prompted me, in this my first message for World Communications Day, to reflect briefly on the idea of the media as a network facilitating communication, communion, and cooperation.


Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, vividly depicts our human vocation to be "sharers in the divine nature" (Dei Verbum, 2): through Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father; so we are no longer strangers and aliens but citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, growing into a holy temple, a dwelling place for God (cf. Eph 2:18-22). This sublime portrayal of a life of communion engages all aspects of our lives as Christians. The call to be true to the self-communication of God in Christ is in fact a call to recognize his dynamic force within us, which then seeks to spread outwards to others, so that his love can truly become the prevalent measure of the world (cf. Homily for World Youth Day, Cologne, 21 August 2005).