Media-friendly priests and bishops beware: the Vatican has warned clergy who appear on television to remember they are not glamorous “stars" or “showmen" but only communicators bringing the Christian message to a mass audience. Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, said “evangelisation does not need showmen priests who go on television." He was speaking after a conference on “Communication and the Mission of the Priesthood" at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
“Communication should foster communion in the Church," Monsignor Piacenza said. Television and radio were “not a platform for individuals showing off" and becoming “the centre of attention".
Such behaviour not only interfered with the message itself but “what is more serious still, it introduces division".
He urged priests “not to improvise" on television, and to avoid “banal sentimentality", saying that their message should be based on “2000 years of communion in the faith," a message which “can only be transmitted through one's own experience and interior life".
Reflecting on the current “Year of the Priest", proclaimed in June by the Pope , the archbishop said a priest's soul should have “interior muscle" comparable to the physical strength of Rambo but nourished by “prayer, the interior life and true motivation".
He said Roman Catholic priests must not appear in the media without authorisation from their bishop, and should spend at least half an hour a day studying current issues on which they might be asked to express a view.
In both sermons and media appearances they could refer to popular culture, including pop songs, but must not resort to simply “copying and pasting" from internet search engines. Their thoughts should be “personal, the fruit of the heart, not of Google".
Father Antonio Mazzi, an Italian priest who campaigns against drug addiction among the young and often appears on television chat shows, agreed that priests were often “ill prepared" for media appearances.
“But we cannot and must not avoid them" he told La Stampa. He added: “I have never felt myself to be a star. The Church has never been afraid of technology, and priests should not be afraid of going on air".
It was however true that some priests displayed “little spirituality" when broadcasting, Father Mazzi said.
The Pope this week complained that the global media offered a diet of news about evil in the world which tended to “harden hearts" and de-sensitise people to violence.
Praying at a statue of the Virgin Mary near the Spanish Steps to mark the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the pontiff said that “every day, through the newspapers, television and radio, evil is reported, repeated and amplified, making us used to horrendous acts, making us become insensitive, and, in some way, poisoning us."
He complained that the mass media “tend to make us feel like spectators, as if evil concerns only others and certain things could never happen to us".
In reality however “we are all actors, and for better or worse, our behaviour has an influence on others" the Pope said, adding: “This poison makes our faces darker and makes us smile less, stopping us from greeting one another or making eye contact."
The Pope added the media often exploited the desperate or the infamous while failing to celebrate everyday goodness.
“Every now and again, people who are usually invisible end up on the front pages or on our television screens, and they are wrung to the last drop until the news and their image no longer attracts attention,” he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: TOUK