Papal Message to CTV's Msgr. Viganò marks 30 years of service
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a message to the head of the Vatican Television
Centre, CTV, Msgr. Dario Viganò, on occasion of the upcoming 30th anniversary
of the centre’s founding. A ceremony was held yesterday at the Vatican to mark the
anniversary, which comes next week on October 22nd. In the Message, Pope
Francis said, “[The Centre’s personnel] contribute to bringing the Church closer to
the world, negating distances, making the word of the Pope reach millions of Catholics
even in places where professing one’s faith is an act of courage.” Below, please find
the Vatican Information Service's précis of the Message.
****************************************** “Your
work is a service to the Gospel and to the Church”, writes the Holy Father to Msgr.
Dario Edoardo Vigano, director of the Vatican Television Centre (Centro Televisivo
Vaticano, CTV) on the occasion of the congress held to commemorate thirty years since
its foundation, an anniversary that coincides with another important date – fifty
years since the approval of the Conciliar decree “Inter Mirifica”, which “numbers
among the marvellous gifts of God the tools of social communication including, indeed,
television”. “During these decades technology has advanced at great speed, creating
unexpected and interconnected networks”, continued Pope Francis. “It is necessary
to maintain the evangelical perspective in this type of 'global communication highway'”,
he added; “in presenting events, your approach must be not worldly, but ecclesial”.
In this regard, the Pontiff recalled how, shortly after being elected as bishop
of Rome, in his meeting with the journalists who had covered the Conclave, he stated
that the role of the media “has continually grown in recent times, to the extent that
they have become indispensable for transmitting to the world the events of contemporary
history”. He continued, “All this is also reflected in the life of the Church. But
if it is not easy to narrate the events of history, it is even more complex to report
the events linked to the Church. … This requires a special responsibility, a great
capacity for interpreting reality in a spiritual light. Effectively, the events in
the life of the Church have a special character: they are governed by a logic that
is not primarily that of, so to say, 'worldly' categories, and precisely for this
reason it is not easy to interpret and communicate them to a broad and varied public”. Finally,
the Pope reiterates that the Vatican Television Centre does not fulfil “a merely documentary,
'neutral' function in relation to events, but rather contributes to bringing the Church
closer to the world, bridging distances, taking the word of God to millions of Catholics,
even to places where often professing one's faith is a courageous choice. Thanks to
the images [it transmits], CTV walks alongside the Pope in bringing Christ to the
many forms of solitude of contemporary man, even reaching sophisticated technological
peripheries. In this, your mission, it is important to remember that the Church is
present in the world of communication, in all its variegated expressions, first and
foremost to lead people to the encounter with Jesus Christ”. Francis concluded
by asking the Virgin to guide the steps of the “pilgrims of communication”, and invoked
the intercession of St. Clare of Assisi, patron of television.