Folia Theologica 21. (2010)
Barbour Hugh O.Praem.: The Cosmology of Catholic Communications: Postmodern Kerygma? A Reflection by a Disciple of SS. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas
156 Hugh BARBOUR suffer from a certain ambiguity, as they can be used to contradict the Christian cosmological world view, and even be seen as replacing it. It is the work of Catholics who work in the area of communications to render the use of technology friendly to the Gospel and the way of life it proposes. These media have a direct effect on the passions of men, indicating what they are to desire, what to fear, what to enjoy, what to hate. They can either be used to direct these passions aright or they can be used to move them as mere commodities and as consumer entities to make men slaves to the "powers of the air" of which St. Paul speaks. So too in St. Thomas' time, as we will soon see in some texts of St. Albert, there was a Christian use of judicial astrology, freed from the ambiguity or outright hostility of idolatry and superstition. Pope John Paul II, in his Message for World Communications Day, on January 24th 2001 comments on the necessity of Catholics to use an often hostile world of communications. He says: The world of the media can sometimes seem no more friendly an environment for evangelization than the pagan world of the apostles' day (...) As much as the world of the media may at times seem at odds with the Christian message, it also offers unique opportunities for proclaiming the saving truth of Christ to the whole human family. Consider, for instance, satellite telecasts of religious ceremonies which often reach a global audience or the positive capacities of the internet to carry religious information and teaching beyond all barriers and frontiers. Such a wide audience would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of those who preached the gospel before us. What is therefore needed in our time is an active and imaginative engagement of the media by the Church.5 6 In a similar vein, and summing up the points we have been making, Pope John Paul makes use of the Patristic image of the original technology of the book and the continuity of natural reason and the supernatural revelation of the Bible to indicate how deeply the proper use of the media of communication may affect the salvation of men. In a discourse given in the year 1999 he states: The media do at times make it possible for those who are searching for God to read in new ways both the book of nature, which is the realm of reason, and the book of revelation which is the bible, which is the realm of faith.1’ 5 http:// www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/communications/doc uments/hf_jp-ii_mes_20010124_world-communications-day_en.html 6 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/communications/doc uments/hf_jp-ii_mes_24011999_world-communications-day_en.html
