Positive communication in the media from the perspective of the Catholic Church

Abstract

The Catholic Church is one of the more important religious institutions in the media worldwide, whose mission is to preach the good news, the Gospel, that is understood as communication of happiness, being Jesus the way of true joy. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the current ecclesial context of media and make a chronological journey and a reading of the Vatican documents on the media, especially those linked to positive communication, that is, when these media seek the approximation between men. Finally, we intend to reach the modern media leadership  of  Pope  Francis  and his concept of “culture of encounter” as a necessary contribution to the common good of the people in the Digital Age.

In this paper, we argue that this is an important subject for investigation due to the number of persons receiving religious information, in a context of religious pluralism where the Catholic Church also participes in the world of communication, “the first Areopagus of modern times”, as Saint John Paul II described it.