1995 - 29th World Communications Day

MESSAGE 

OF THE HOLY FATHER 

FOR THE 29th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

"Cinema: communicator of culture and of values."

Sunday, May 28, 1995

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

This year, on the occasion of World Communications Day, I would like to invite you to think about the cinema as "a communicator of culture and of values". As you certainly will know, during the current year celebrations are being held around the world to commemorate the first centennial of this special and widespread medium of expression, now so easily accessible to all.

The Church has often pointed out the importance of the communications media in transmitting and promoting human and religious values (cf. Pius XII, Miranda prorsus, 1957) and the special responsibilities that ensue for those who work in this difficult field. The Church, in fact, considering the progress that has been made and the developments that have taken place in the world of social communication in recent decades, is well aware both of the dangerous conditioning power enjoyed by the mass media as well as of the capacity that they offer, if wisely used, of being useful for evangelization.

1994 - Hari Komunikasi Dunia Ke 28

Amanat Bapa Suci Yohanes Paulus II

Saudara-saudari yang terkasih,

Selama beberapa dasawarsa ini, televisi telah mempelopori suatu revolusi di bidang komunikasi, yang telah sangat mempengaruhi kehidupan keluarga. Dewasa ini televisi telah menjadi sumber utama untuk warta berita, informasi dan hiburan untuk keluarga-keluarga yang tak terbilang jumlahnya, membentuk sikap dan pendapat, nilai dan tingkahlakunya.

Televisi itu mampu memperkaya kehidupan keluarga. Mampu mendekatkan anggota-anggota keluarga satu sama lain dan memajukan solidaritas keluarga itu dengan keluarga-keluarga lain dan dengan masyarakat umumnya. Televisi mampu menambah bukan hanya pengetahuan umum, melainkan juga pengetahuan agama mereka, memungkinkan mereka mendengar Sabda Allah, memperkuat identitas religius serta memajukan kehidupan rohani mereka.

Namun televisi juga dapat merugikan kehidupan keluarga; dengan mempropagandakan nilai-nilai yang merendahkan dan model-model tingkah laku, dengan menyiarkan pornografi dan penyajian secara telanjang kekerasan kejam; dengan menanamkan relativisme di bidang moral dan sikap skeptis terhadap agama, dengan menyebarluaskan laporan yang mengubah atau memanipulasi peristiwa dan persoalan-persoalan yang sedang beredar; dengan memuat iklan-iklan berani yang menarik naluri rendah, dan dengan mengagungkan pandangan hidup palsu yang menghalangi diwujudkannya saling penghormatan, keadilan dan damai.

1994 - 28th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE 28th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Television and family: guidelines for good viewing

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In recent decades, television has spearheaded a communications revolution which has profoundly affected family life. Today television is a primary source of news, information and entertainment for countless families, shaping their attitudes and opinions, their values and patterns of behaviour.

Television can enrich family life. It can draw family members closer together and foster their solidarity with other families and with the community at large. It can increase not only their general knowledge but also their religious knowledge, making it possible for them to hear God's word, to strengthen their religious identity, and to nurture their moral and spiritual life.

Television can also harm family life: by propagating degrading values and models of behaviour, by broadcasting pornography and graphic depictions of brutal violence; by inculcating moral relativism and religious scepticism; by spreading distorted, manipulative accounts of news events and current issues; by carrying exploitative advertising that appeals to base instincts, and by glorifying false visions of life that obstruct the realization of mutual respect, of justice and of peace.

Even when television programmes themselves are not morally objectionable, television can still have negative effects on the family. It can isolate family members in their private worlds, cutting them off from authentic interpersonal relations; it can also divide the family by alienating parents from children and children from parents.

1993 - 27th World Communications Day

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II
FOR THE 27th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

"Videocassettes and audiocassettes in the formation of culture and of conscience"
[Sunday, 23 May 1993]

My dear brothers and sisters,

More than a full year after the publication of the Church's latest pastoral instruction on communications media,  Aetatis Novae, we are still reflecting on the vision of the modern world which it presented, and still trying to grasp the practical implications of the media situation it described. This is precisely what the Church would wish us to do. The entire family of the Church must involve itself prayerfully in the search for understanding and awareness in the unprecedented situations so often nowadays cast up by the world's headlong progress in discovery and development. Each individual must add his voice to the Church's unceasing petition for wisdom, for we greatly need divine guidance in order to grasp each opportunity that offers to serve God and His people, while at the same time taking the measures necessary to fend off whatever evil may threaten them.
The pastoral instruction Aetatis Novae, we should notice, uses the word "new" even in its own title. "At the dawn of a new era", it says, "a vast expansion of human communications is profoundly influencing culture everywhere", and it goes on to claim that everybody is affected. The instruction uses the word "new" again and again: "new media", "new languages", "new opportunities", in its anxiety to illustrate that the world in the Eighties and Nineties is no longer the same as it was in previous decades and generations. The argument is that the world in which God's people are on pilgrimage is quite largely a changed place, and that "new media" are quite largely responsible for changing it. The pilgrim people, however, must adapt to what is changed, must find ways to cope with it, must search to turn it to God's glory and the service of all his creation.
In my message for World Communications Day last year, I mentioned that among the things we always celebrate on this annual occasion are the gifts of speech, of hearing, and of sight, which God has given us in order to make communication possible between us. This year the theme of the Day focuses on two specific "new" media which serve these very senses in a quite remarkable way, namely, audiocassettes and videocassettes.

1993 - Hari Komunikasi Sedunia ke 27

Amanat Bapa Suci Yohanes Paulus II

HARI KOMUNIKASI SEDUNIA KE 27

27 MEI 1993

Saudara-saudariku yang terkasih,

Sudah satu tahun lebih berlalu sejak Instruksi Pastoral Aetatis Novae (terbitnya suatu era baru) mengenai alat-alat komunikasi diterbitkan. Sekarang sekali lagi saya mengundang Anda sekalian berpikir mengenai pandangan yang disampaikan mengenai dunia modern dan kesimpulan-kesimpulan praktis dalam situasi yang dilukiskan oleh instruksi tersebut. Mustahil Gereja menganggap sepi segala macam perubahan yang belum pernah terjadi sebelumnya dan disebabkan oleh kemajuan dalam segi kehidupan yang penting ini dimana-mana. Seharusnya kita masing-masing meminta kebijaksanaan yang diperlukan supaya dapat menghargai segala kesempatan yang disajikan oleh perkembangan-perkembangan dalam teknologi komunikasi modern untuk mengabdi kepada Tuhan dan umatNya, dan sekaligus mengakui betapa secara tak terhindarkan kita ditantang kemajuan ini.

1992 - Hari Komunikasi Sedunia Ke 26

Amanat Bapa Suci Yohanes Paulus II

(Pesan Paus untuk Komunikasi se-dunia ke-26

yang berlangsung 31 Mei ini,

disiarkan Vatikan pada Pesta Santo Fransiskus de Sales,

pelindung media Katolik, 24 Januari 1992).

Saudara-saudara terkasih,

Selama 26 tahun yang berturut-turut ini, demi menjawab petunjuk Konsili Vatikan II, Gereja merayakan Hari Komunikasi Sosial se-dunia.

Apa yang dirayakan hari ini? Yang dirayakan hari ini adalah pengakuan penuh syukur akan anugerah khusus Allah, yang memiliki arti teramat besar dalam era sejarah umat manusia, dalam mana kita hidup dewasa ini, yakni anugerah terdiri atas peralatan teknis yang memudahkan, meningkatkan dan memperkaya komunikasi antar manusia.

Hari ini, kita merayakan berkat yang diperoleh dalam bentuk dapat berbicara, mendengar dan melihat, yang memungkinkan kita keluar dari suasana terpencil dan sepi, sehingga terjalin tukar-menukar pikiran dan perasaan hati dengan orang-orang di sekitar kita.

Kita merayakan anugerah dapat menulis dan membaca, yang menyediakan kepada kita kebijaksanaan para leluhur kita, dan dengan yang mana pengalaman serta pemikiran kita sendiri diteruskan kepada generasi-generasi mendatang.

1992 - 26th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE 26th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY
Theme: The proclamation of Christ' Message in the Communications media

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

For the twenty-sixth successive year, in response to a directive given by the Second Vatican Council, the Church celebrates a World Day dedicated to social communications.

What is it that this Day celebrates? It is a way of acknowledging with gratitude a specific gift of God, a gift which has enormous significance for the period of human history in which we are living, the gift of all those technical means which facilitate, enhance and enrich communications between human beings.

On this Day, we celebrate the blessings of speech, of hearing and of sight, which enable us to emerge from our isolation and loneliness in order to exchange with those around us the thoughts and sentiments which arise in our hearts. We celebrate the gifts of writing and reading by which the wisdom of our ancestors is placed at our disposal and our own experience and reflection are passed on to the generations that follow us. Then, as if these wonders were of small account, we recognize the value of "marvels" even more wonderful: "the marvels of technology which God has destined human genius to discover" (Inter Mirifica, 1), inventions which in our time have immeasurably increased and extended the range over which our communications may carry and have amplified the volume of our voice so that it can simultaneously come to the ears of multitudes beyond counting.

1991 - 25th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XXV WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: The Communications media and the unity and progress of the human family

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

For the celebration of this World Communications Day, we return to the theme which formed the central message of the Pastoral Instruction Communio et Progressio, approved by Pope Paul VI in 1971, regarding the application of the Decree of the Second Vatican Council on the Means of Social Communication. Prepared in obedience to the Council Fathers wishes, that Instruction saw the chief aims of social communication and all the means it uses as the unity and progress of the human family. On the Twentieth Anniversary of this important Document, I wish to return to that basic consideration in order to invite the members of the Church to reflect once more on the serious problems and rich new opportunities occasioned by continuing developments in the communications media, especially in relation to the unity and progress of peoples everywhere.

The Church has long held the conviction that the media (press, radio, television, film and cinema) are to be regarded as "gifts of God" (cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Miranda Prorsus, AAS, 24 [1957], p. 765). The list of the "gifts" which comprise the communications media has continued to lengthen since the Pastoral Instruction was published. Such contemporary items as satellites, computers, home video recorders and ever improving methods for the transmission of information are now at the disposal of the human family. The purpose of these new gifts is the same as that of the more traditional communications media: to draw us closer together in brotherhood and mutual understanding, and to help us to go forward in the pursuit of our human destiny as God's beloved sons and daughters.

1989 - 24th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XXIII WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Religion in the Mass Media

Brothers and sisters,

my dear friends the communicators,

1. The theme of the World Day of Social Communications this year, "Religion in the Media", underlines the special importance of the Church's presence and of the part it plays in public dialogue. In our days, in fact, religious messages, as well as cultural messages, gain an increased impact from the intervention of the social communications media. The reflection which I would like to share with you on this occasion will illustrate a concern that has been constantly with me throughout my pontificate: what place can religion have in the life of society and, more exactly, what place can religion have in the media?

2. In the course of its pastoral activity, the Church naturally asks itself questions regarding the media's attitude to "religion". The fact is that at the very time the media and the techniques of communication are enjoying such developments, the industrial world which has assisted their extraordinary growth itself shows a "secularism" which is apparently bent on hastening the disappearance of any sense of religion among the people of our day.

1989 - Hari Komunikasi Sedunia Ke 23

AMANAT BAPA SUCI YOHANES PAULUS II,
PADA HARI KOMUNIKASI SEDUNIA KE 23 TAHUN 1989

AGAMA DALAM MEDIA

Saudara saudari, sahabat-sahabat para komunikator :

1. Tema Hari Komunikasi Sosial Sedunia tahun ini adalah Agama dalam media. Tema ini menggarisbawahi betapa pentingnya kehadiran Gereja serta peran yang dimainkannya dalam dialog masyarakat. Pada dasarnya, dalam zaman kita, pesan-pesan religius maupun kebudayaan mempunyai dampak yang semakin besar, akibatnya pemakaian sarana-sarana komunikasi sosial. Refleksi yang ingin saya bagi-bagikan bersama anda pada kesempatan ini, akan menjelaskan suatu minat yang secara tetap menyertai saya sepanjang masa kepausanku; yakni, dimanakah tempat agama dalam kehidupan masyarakat? Atau lebih jelas lagi, dimanakah tempat agama dalam media?

2. Sepanjang karya pastoralnya, Gereja biasa bertanya pada diri sendiri mengenai sikap media terhadap agama, nyatanya pada saat media dan teknik teknik komunikasi mengalami perkembangan sepesat itu, dunia industri yang telah ikut serta dalam perkembangannya yang luar biasa itu, menunjukan suatu gejala sekuralisme, yang agaknya cenderung untuk mempercepat hilangnya setiap rasa keagamaan dalam hati manusia zaman kita.

1988 - 22nd World Communications Day

MESSAGE
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).

1987 - 21st World Communications Day

MESSAGE 

OF THE HOLY FATHER 

FOR THE XXI WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY 

Theme: Social Communications at the Service of Justice and Peace

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Social communications constitutes a platform of exchange and dialogue which responds to a particular concern of my Pontificate, and that of my Predecessor, Paul Vl (cf. Message to the Special Session of the United Nations on Disarmament, 24 May 1978, 5): to contribute, in the promotion of peace through justice, to the passage from a balance of terror to a strategy of trust. With some urgency, therefore, I proposed as the theme for World Social Communications Day 1987: "Social Communications at the service of justice and peace". This I have repeated often, but I emphasize it today adding the following trust cannot be the work simply of those involved in politics, but it must come from the conscience of peoples. Having already dealt with the problem of peace (World Day of Peace 1983), this year I would like to continue this brief reflection on the work of justioe which brings about peace, the strategy of trust as the fulfilment of justice in view of peace.

I know that for you, workers in the field of social communications, the masses are not an anonymous multitude. They represent a continuous challenge to reach each and everyone in their particular context, at their own level of understanding and sensibility, thanks to the ever-more advanced technologies and ever-more effective means of communication. This appeal might resound in your conscience: transmit the strategy of trust through the means of communication, at the service of justice and peace!

1986 - 20th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XX WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Social Communications and the Christian Formation of Public Opinion 

Dear brothers and sisters,

1. The recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, did not set out merely to be a solemn commemoration of that event, which was destined to mark so deeply the life of the Church in this century; more importantly, it brought the Council's spirit to life again and recalled anew its teachings and decisions. Thus, the Synod took the Second Vatican Council and relaunched it into the Church's life.

Among the iniliatives given birth by a directive of the Council there is one which is worthy of special mention. It is the annual World Communications Day, established in the first place "to strengthen more effectively the various forms of the Church's apostolate in the field of communications in all the dioceses of the world" (Inter Mirifica, l8). The decision to establish it, which shows what great importance the Council Fathers attributed to social communications, is seen to have even greater relevance today, with the ever growing influence of the communications media.

1985 - 19th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XIX WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Social Communications for a Christian Promotion of Youth

My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, men and women who have at heart the dignity of the human person, and, above all, you young people of the whole world, who have to write a new page of history for the year 2000!

1. The Church is getting ready, as it does every year, to celebrate World Communications Day. An occasion of prayers and reflection, in which the whole Church community, called to announce and witness to the Gospel (Mk 16:15), ought to feel involved, so that the mass media, through the cooperation of all persons of good will, may truly contribute to "the realization of justice, of peace, of freedom and of human progress" (Communio et Progressio, 100).

The theme of the world Day - "Social communications for a Christian promotion of youth" - echoes the initiative of the United Nations, which has proclaimed 1985 as the "Intemational Year of Youth". The instruments of social communication, which are "capable of extending almost infinitely the area over which it is possible to make the word of God heard" (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 45), can effectively contribute towards young people's realization of their personal vocation as persons and as Christians, through a free and responsible choice, thus preparing them to be the builders and leaders of tomorrow's society.

Instruments for the service if humanity

1984 - 18th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XVIII WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Social Communication: Instruments of Encounter between Faith and Culture

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

1. Desired by the Second Vatican Council to "make the Church's multiple apostolate in the field of social communication more effective" (Decree Inter Mirifica, no. 18), this annual Day, which is being celebrated for the eighteenth time, has the scope of ever better educating the faithful in their duties in such an important sector. On this occasion, in the first place I Wish to exhort each of you to join me in prayer that the world of social communication, with its operators and multitude of receivers, may faithfully carry out its function in the service of truth, freedom and the promotion of the whole man in all people.

The theme chosen for this eighteenth day is of great importance:

Social Communications, Instrument of Encounter between Faith and Cutture. Culture, faith and communication are three realities among which a relationship is established on which depend the present and the future of our civilization, which is called to express itself ever more fully in its planetary dimension.

1983 - 17th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XVII WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Social Communications and the Promotion of Peace

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,

1. The promotion of peace: this is the theme proposed for your reflection on the World Day of Social communications in the present year. A theme of extreme importance and of vibrating topicality.

In a world whose various elements have become ever more interdependent, thanks to the spectacular progress and rapid expansion of the mass media, communication and information today represent a force which can very powerfully serve the great and noble cause of peace, but which can equally aggravate tensions and favour new forms of injustice and of violations of human rights.

Fully conscious of the role of those engaged in social communications, I believed it to be necessary, in my recent Message for the World Day of Peace (1st January 1983) which was on the theme: "The dialogue for Peace, a challenge for our time", to address a special appeal to all who work in the mass media encouraging them to weigh well their responsibility and to put forward with fullest objectivity the rights, problems and mentalities of the two sides, so as to promote understanding and dialogue between groups, countries and civilizations (cfr. n. II).

1982 - Hari Komunikasi Sedunia Ke 16

PESAN

KOMUNIKASI SOSIAL DAN MANUSIA USIA LANJUT

HARI KOMUNIKASI SOSIAL SEDUNIA 1982

Untuk organisasi-organisasi internasional, misalnya Perser­ikatan Bangsa bangsa dan Masyarakat Eropa, tahun 1982 merupakan TAHUN KAUM TUA. Ada usaha di mana-mana untuk merangsang kepri­hatinan umum terhadap masalah-masalah tua, masalah kaum tua dan masalah orang jompo, sebagian dari umat manusia, yang dimensi-dimensinya menjadi lebih luas sebagai akibat dari perpanjangan rentang hidup dalam masa modern ini.

Bapa Suci berbicara tentang Kaum Tua dalam sambutan pada hari Minggu pertama tahun 1982. Ia menyebut kaum tua sebagai satu kategori manusia yang begitu berjasa tetapi kadang-kadang begitu diabaikan. Bapa Suci menyetujui tema tersebut untuk hari Komunikasi Sedunia kali ini. Dengan demikian beliau jelas-jelas bermaksud mendesak supaya komunikator profesional di dalam dan luar Gereja berperan serta dalam memperbaiki keteledoran ini.

1982 - 16th World Communications Day

MESSAGE

OF THE HOLY FATHER

FOR THE XVI WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Social Communications and the Problems of the Elderly

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,

For sixteen years now the Church has been holding this "Day" celebration in which the faithful are invited, in response to a specific direction of the conciliar Decree Inter Mirifica, to engage in prayerful reflection concerning their personal obligations in the important matter of social communications (cf. Inter Mirifica, no. 18). It has been the practice to focus attention on a particular theme for each celebration, while inviting the prayers and offerings of the faithful (idem). ln line with this tradition, it has been my wish that the Day should this year be devoted to the Elderly, gladly adopting the theme on which the United Nations Organization has chosen to concentrate in 1982

1. The problems of the elderly today differ considerably from those with which they had to contend in the past. There is, firstly, the fact that the numbers of old people have been steadily increasing; in countries with a high standard of living the increase is accounted for by the improvement in health services and medical care, by better working conditions and general welfare.

1981 - 15th World Communications Day

MESSAGE
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XV WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Theme: Social Communications and Responsible human Freedom

Beloved Brothers and Sisters,

The XV World Communications Day has as its theme: "Social Communications in the service of responsible human freedom". Tho this important subject I intend to devote this message, which I address lovingly to the sons of the Catholic Church and to all men of good will.

1. In the continual expansion and progress of the mass media we can discern a sign of the times, which constitutes an immense potential for universal understanding and a strengthening of the grounds for peace and brotherhood among the nations.

Pius XII, of venerable memory, very rightly spoke, in the Encyclical Miranda Prorsus, of 8 September 1957, of these media, classifying them as "wonderful inventions of which our age is proud", and seeing in them a gift of God. The Decree lnter Mirifica of the II Vatican Ecumenical Council, confirming this view, stressed the possibilities of these media, which "by their very nature are able to reach and move not only individuals, but even multitudes and the whole of human society".

1980 - 14th World Communications Day

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE XIV WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY 

Theme: Social Communications and Family

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is in obedience to a direction of the Second Vatican Council that the Catholic Church celebrates (on the 18th of May) the World Day of Social Communications. In one of its first Documents, the Council ordered that a day should be set aside each year in all the dioceses of the world, and that on that special day the faithful should pray for a particular intention, namely, that the Church's work in the field of communications might be effective. In addition, each one was to reflect on his own duties regarding the communications media and to make a contribution for the support of the Church's social communications establishments and undertakings.

In the years since the Council's Decree on the Social Communications Media, the World Day has come to be an increasingly important event in the Church's life. In many countries, Catholics have been joined by the members of other Christian communities in the celebration; a practical manifestation of solidarity admirably in keeping with the ecumenical principle "not to do separately what we can do together". Let us thank God for it.

This year, in harmony with the theme of the coming Synod of Bishops which will be considering the problems confronting the family in the changed circumstances of modern times, we are invited to focus our reflection on the relationship between the mass media and the family. One circumstance which intimately affects all families today is the prevalence of the social communications media: the press, the cinema, the radio, and television. It is a rare home indeed to which entry has not been gained by one or other of these. Where once, not very long ago, the family consisted of parents and children with the addition, perhaps, of a relative or two or a servant, now the circle is, in a sense, extended to admit the more or less permanent "company" of announcers, newsreaders, entertainers, commentators on sport and current affairs, with frequent visits as well from famous and influential people of every nationality, persuasion and profession.