Pontifical Council for Culture:new trends

“The Culture of Communication and New Languages“, that’s the theme the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal designate, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi has chosen for the Plenary Assembly of this Council which takes place next week from the 10th to the 13th November, both within Vatican walls and in other Roman venues . Hosting not the usual in–house event with council members but one extended to lay representatives from the world of culture as well. An effort to broaden the horizons of this meeting set to focus in a special way on the challenges represented by communicating the Christian message in our increasingly technological contemporary society . My colleague Fabio Colagrande asked Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi why this particular theme was chosen and whether it reflects an issue currently at the heart of a debate within the Church.
“…Even to us, the language used in ecclesial circles sometimes lacks in resonance, “ the Archbishop replied. And he went on to illustrate his thoughts in this regard, chosing to highlight the complex and sophisticated language used by theologians, as an example of how little it means to Catholics in the pews on Sundays who are used to a more familiar language : that of television and internet , in short that in common everyday usage.
“…Certainly, while communication may need to be founded on logic, coherence and suitable vocabulary, at the same time it must attempt to captivate a broader audience by finding new language skills to reach out to as many people as possible”, the Archbishop continued, otherwise he stressed , we risk failing to convey the content of the message.
At a more pastoral level, the Archbishop also identified the need to find innovative ways to spread the message at a catechetical level, enhancing, how he feels it is his primary duty, to clearly understand where the great trends in contemporary communication lie.
But the Archbishop’s strongest statement in this interview came when he shone the spotlight on the content of the message to be conveyed , in his words: “…sometimes ..even simple words that refer to the Church, don’t mean anything outside ecclesial circles…Because of this it is necessary , without losing sight of the content, to attempt what McLuhan suggested, that’s to say making the medium part of the message communicated .Clearly this might entail some variations in the message. I’m thinking of the Council of Chalcedon, where a profound variation of the comprehension of the figure of Christ took place – christology – adopting categories that were not those used in the Bible but rather in Greek culture.
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