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Skriven 2006-06-03 00:25:54 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service (Press Release)
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                The following press release is Copyrighted by the
                          Vatican Information Service.
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                               VIS-Press releases

CEI MEDIA: PROMOTE EXPRESSIONS OF ITALIAN CHRISTIANITY

VATICAN CITY, JUN 2, 2006 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI
received a group of 1,200 journalists and technicians from the Italian daily
"Avvenire," the television channel Sat 2000, and other communications media
belonging to the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). The group was led by
Cardinal Camillo Ruini president of the CEI.

"Dear friends," said the Pope, "yours is a truly important function. Indeed, it
is also thanks to your efforts that the commitment of Italian Catholics to
bring the Gospel of Christ to the lives of nations can continue."

The Holy Father then went on to recall the foundation of "Avvenire" by order of
Paul VI in the years following Vatican Council II, and the subsequent expansion
of Catholic communications media to include radio and television.

"In order to understand the overall significance of the work to which you
dedicate yourselves every day," the Pope said, "it may prove useful to reflect
briefly upon the relationship between faith and culture" in Europe. "European
culture ... was formed over centuries with the contribution of Christianity.
However, since the Enlightenment western culture has been distancing itself
from its Christian foundations." And, "especially in recent times, ... the
reduction of faith to a subjective experience and the consequent secularization
of public conscience show us, clearly and dramatically, the consequences of
this separation."

Nonetheless, the Pope continued, in various parts of the continent "experiences
of and approaches to Christian culture are being affirmed or emerging anew,
with increasing force. In particular, Catholic faith is still substantially
present in the life of the Italian people and the signs of its renewed vitality
are visible to all.

"Therefore," he added, "constant discernment is necessary in your work as
communicators inspired by the Gospel. As you well know, the pastors of the
Italian Church are careful to conserve those Christian forms that come from the
great traditions of the Italian people and that mould community life, updating
them, purifying them where necessary and, above all, reinforcing and
encouraging them. It is also your duty to sustain and promote the new Christian
experiences that are coming into being, helping them to develop an ever greater
awareness of their ecclesial roots and of the role they can play."

Benedict XVI described the work of the communicators as "a task not to be
undertaken in an abstract or purely intellectual manner, but remaining
attentive to the infinite details of the real life of a people."

"Do not tire," he concluded, "of building bridges of understanding and
communication between ecclesiastical experience and public opinion. Thus you
will be protagonists of a form of communication ... that serves modern
mankind."
AC/CEI COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA/RUINI VIS 060602 (460)

SUMMARY

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