Council for Culture:broadening horizons ...

Is the Catholic Church effective in getting its message across at a time when people increasingly use Facebook, twitter, you tube, text messages to communicate, using words that are new?
Picking up on this question, Richard Rouse, an official from the Pontifical Council for Culture , who heads its ‘Department for Languages and Communications’, recently introduced this office’s Plenary, to take place from the 10^th to the 13^th of November. He did so at a Press conference in the Vatican with these words:
“Save, convert, justify”, all three of these words he stressed, may be familiar to theologians , but for those who are not theologians , that’s to say the majority of people, what exactly do they mean ? Well, as we know simply saving a document , converting a file to electronic format , or justifying a text on Word.
I caught up with Rouse on the eve of the Plenary of this Council headed by Cardinal designate Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi . As I discovered the Plenary has the hallmark of a revolution in the manner in which it is being conducted: no written speeches , meetings outside Vatican walls including in one of Rome’s prestigious Halls on the Capitoline Hill . But also the presence of a broad selection of guests from the world of culture invited to discuss the theme of this Plenary which is : “New Languages and Cultures of Communication”.
Among these guests as Rouse tells me , there’s one who certainly belongs to that digital age generation: “…Yes we have Pietro Scott Jovane , chief executive officer of Microsoft Italy, he’s going to speak to us about the world of computers , about the world of young people sitting with their gadgets communicating with each other and the way that these computers are changing ..the way that they use to communicate ..”.
So at this year’s Plenary at the Council for Culture, its members will be doing a lot of listening it seems. But not just on the grammar of our culture, the themes chosen have a broad spectrum. On another occasion the theme discussed will be : ‘Listening to the languages of the soul in the city’. Perhaps not words to be found in theological text books but words that speak to many lay people : “…we have to ensure that our message is put into terms and categories, ideas and languages that get the message across throughout the world in whatever culture…sometimes you need a degree to understand what’s being said in theological circles which is good in a certain sense because it means that people will have to work and study to understand and grow in their wisdom and in their faith but at the same time it means that we become slightly self-referencing…”
I wondered whether touching people’s hearts was part of the picture as well : “…yes that’s something we have to look up to Benedict XVI for, because he is so wonderful at being able to express in very simple terms some very deep theological concerns…”
Listen to this feature produced by Veronica Scarisbrick :