Evangelization Doesn't Require Showmen Priests

These were two of the conclusions from a study day on "Communication and the Mission of the Priesthood" held Wednesday at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

The secretary for the Congregation for the Clergy, Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, affirmed that "evangelization does not need showmen priests who go on television."

"Communication should foster communion in the Church," he said, warning that otherwise, it becomes a platform for individuals showing off, or "what is still more serious, introduces division."

The Vatican official discouraged priests from improvising when they use the media to communicate, saying that their message should be the "2,000 years of communion in the faith," a message that "can only be transmitted through one's own experience and the interior life."