Posted: October 20

Making use of the media

Today is a gray and wet Monday in Rome, much as Saturday, Oct. 18; in between, however, the sun came out for the big ceremony of the beatification of Mother Theresa. The Mass took on extra meaning for participants because it so closely followed the celebration of Pope John Paul II's 25th anniversary of his election as supreme pontiff. Visitors reveled in the sunshine and in the strong religious feeling that touched people in the piazza on all the way down the via di Reconciliazione. I found myself at the end of that broad avenue, fascinated by the collection of vans with video equipment and parabolic dishes for uplinking images of the Mass to an audience of millions more than could get to Rome. They had the biggest boom I have seen for shots from up high above the crowd, and at times it looked like the director was more fond of crowd shots than of closeups of the actual individuals reading the Word of God.

During his pontificate the Holy Father has embraced the complex of news-celebrity-communication as a very modern pulpit which he uses effectively to address a range of issues to a mass audience of believers and non-believers. Mother Theresa is known for her Nobel Prize as well as her religious life, and the Mass of beatification used that celebrity to remind a very broad audience of the Church's message of love and serving the poor. Those broadcasters and announcers were not there by accident, but by years of cultivating their interest. It makes me wonder whether Jesuits are bold enough in seizing the opportunities they have for addressing people beyond the narrow limits of classroom and church nave.