By Jose Antonio Varela Vidal
ROME, FEB. 23, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The Church wants to dialogue, to open up in frank communication with today’s world, according to the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli said this when he spoke with ZENIT at a round table Tuesday hosted by the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See. The event was held to analyze the results and experience of Madrid’s World Youth Day.
In regard to what Archbishop Celli described as the “anguishing and painful subject of pedophilia,” he said that the Holy See has had to reflect on what it means to communicate today. This has resulted in a greater degree of openness and transparency by the Church.
As part of this openness the Vatican’s Youtube channel was created, the prelate suggested, adding that the Pope wants the Church to be where the people of today are. Archbishop Celli also referred to a Vatican Twitter feed, “because the Pope wants certain messages and values that are typical of the Church to resound in the context that today is typical in the media.”
“There is a desire to dialogue, to open up in a frank, honest and serene communication with today’s world,” the pontifical council president declared.
When asked about the theme for this year’s World Day of Communications, Archbishop Celli explained that “the Pope has taken the subject of silence as an integral part of communication, but not as something negative.”
“I must be silent to listen to the other, so that what the other tells me will resound in my heart,” he explained. “It’s not just a monologue, it’s a dialogue and this calls for alternating between silence and word, word and silence.”
