In his Dec. 14 blog post, Sandro Magister picks out a Catholic sociologist's comparison of John Paul II and Benedict XVI as communicators, from an analysis of the Church and the mass media delivered at the last plenary assembly of the Italian bishops' conference in Assisi.
The Popes as communicators
Translated from
Last month, at their plenary meeting in Assisi, more than 200 bishops from all Italy listened behind closed doors to a discourse on "The image of the Church and media communications" by Chiara Giaccardi, professor of the sociology of mass communications at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart [main campus in Milan].
In the final part of her analysis, Giaccardi compared the communicative gifts of John Paul II and his successor:
If we look at recent history, the Church has been able to field many important communications challenges.
In an era of globalization, it was the first planetary network to exploit for human promotion the potential of interconnectivity.
The pontificate of John Paul II was, in this sense, an example of the innovative and conscious use of the media (understood, with McLuhan, as a means of communications as well as of 'transport'), anticipating and embodying in the most authentic way the potentials of globalization in terms of mobility, permeability of frontiers, the de-spatialized simultaneity of experience - even the religious, the intercultural component of communications, and the like.
But John Paul II was also able to communicate the dignified silence of suffering as a condition that is common to all men, one that is inseparable to existence and which makes us brothers in Christ.
The communicative talent of Benedict XVI is different: it is expressed in the 'spoken' word that is measured, through that
léghein [the Greek root verb for logos, meaning 'to relate'] which unites simply by being said - words impregnated with logos - not 'magic' words like those whereby mass media has conditioned contemporary society, words that promise instant marvelous transformations (of our body, of our life expectancy, etc), which give rise to 'hyper' sensibilities and exaggerated emotional states.
Communicative ability like that of Benedict XVI's is specially precious - but at the same time especially difficult - for our time. One of the challenges that the Church must field is precisely to re-educate society to a discourse of logos, words with sense, that can inspire listening that can be demanding and shatter fragile certainties, but is liberating from the totalitarian and reductive communications that characterizes contemporary culture, a sort of Fantasyland that cannot withstand a closer look.
Communications through a discourse of logos is the very opposite of what today's society has become used to - a series of slogans and 'Open Sesame' words which do not resolve problems, are not even helpful to understand them, but which are sedative and tranquilizing because they shut out questions without attempting comprehension, they offer easy soothing responses that are ineffectual and soon forgotten, easily replaced by new catchwords.
A substantial part of Giaccardi's lecture is published tin the Dec. 13 issue of Avvenire.
Cutting through Prof. Giaccardi's 'technical' language, Benedict XVI's communication is distinguished by a demanding realism. Indeed, he often says, in effect, that if you want easy solutions and magic formulas, Christianity is not your answer: It's not easy to follow Christ, but it's the way to go because it leads to true joy and eternal life.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/12/2009 13:10]