MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
JOHN PAUL II
FOR THE XXX WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY
JOHN PAUL II
FOR THE XXX WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY
19 MAY1996
Theme: The Media: Modern Forum
for Promoting the Role of Women in Society
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This year, the theme for World Communications Day, "The Media: Modern Forum for Promoting the Role of Women in Society", recognizes that the communications media play a crucial role not only in promoting justice and equality for women but in fostering appreciation for their specific feminine gifts, which elsewhere I have called the "genius" of women (cf. Mulieris Dignitatem, 30; Letter to Women, 10).
Last year, in my Letter to Women, I sought to advance a dialogue, especially with women themselves, on what it means to be a woman in our time (cf. No. 1). I also pointed out some of "the obstacles which in so many parts of the world still keep women from being fully integrated into social, political and economic life" (No. 4). This is a dialogue which people in the communications media can, indeed have an obligation to, foster and support. People in the media often become advocates, and commendably so, of the voiceless and the marginalized. They are in a unique position also to stimulate public consciousness with regard to two serious issues concerning women in today's world.
