“I hope you will always transmit authentic information, without any manipulations whatsoever, promoting what unites more than what divides,” said the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on Thursday, March 16, 2017, to the National Council of the Order of Journalists, on the occasion of the opening of the Order’ new headquarters at Rome, reported Vatican Radio.
The Secretary of State warned against the “risk of instrumentalization of news by an insidious system of power” and the problem “of sensationalism and speed at all costs, which sometimes leads to defamation and often declasses good news to no news.” The Cardinal’s invitation was to “build bridges of dialogue to contribute to checking indifference,” rejecting “the temptation to foment clashes with a language that expresses violence and intolerance.”
Cardinal Parolin also spoke to journalists about Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s visit to the Vatican yesterday. He said that the country of cedars “has taken a notable step forward with the election of the new President of the Republic. The positive aspect is, especially, the rediscovered unity of Christians and, hence, their greater weight in the country.” Cardinal Parolin added that President Aoun “hopes that this might also imply some movement on the regional scene.”
