Vatican City, Jan 24, 2008 / 09:34 am
Pope Benedict XVI issued a call today for ‘info-ethics’ to be developed for the media as part of his annual message for the World Day of Social Communications. The Pope wrote that “it is essential that social communications should assiduously defend the person and fully respect human dignity.”
At the Holy See’s press office this morning, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli and Msgr. Paul Tighe, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, presented the Pope's Message for the 42nd World Day of Social Communications.
Noting how the communications media "can be instruments of our hope", Archbishop Celli stressed that "they can and must also be instruments at the service a more just and united world.”
"It is no coincidence", he added, "that the Pope mentions, though briefly, the 'decisive' role the media have had and continue to have". The Holy Father also recalls those sectors of human life in which the media "are a real resource, a blessing for everyone: literacy, socialization, the development of democracy and dialogue among peoples", he added.