How to Evangelize in the Society of the Spectacle. Pope Leo to the Examination of the Media

Leo XIV (pic­tu­red when he was a mis­sio­na­ry and bishop in Peru) dedi­ca­ted his fir­st public audien­ce, on Monday, May 12, to the more than 5,000 jour­na­lists who had floc­ked to Rome from all over the world for the elec­tion of the new pope.

“Peace” and “truth” were the key words of his speech. Aims that can even come at the cost of free­dom and life for many jour­na­lists. For whom the pope right away rai­sed this vibrant appeal:

“Let me rei­te­ra­te today the Church’s soli­da­ri­ty with jour­na­lists who are impri­so­ned for see­king to report the truth, and with the­se words I also ask for the relea­se of the­se impri­so­ned jour­na­lists. The Church reco­gni­zes in the­se wit­nes­ses – I am thin­king of tho­se who report on war even at the cost of their lives – the cou­ra­ge of tho­se who defend digni­ty, justi­ce and the right of peo­ple to be infor­med, becau­se only infor­med indi­vi­duals can make free choi­ces. The suf­fe­ring of the­se impri­so­ned jour­na­lists chal­len­ges the con­scien­ce of nations and the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­ni­ty, cal­ling on all of us to safe­guard the pre­cious gift of free speech and of the press.”

In effect, from Russia to Iran to China, not a few of today’s jour­na­lists have ended up in chains. “We live in dif­fi­cult times,” Leo said. But nei­ther can the­re exi­st – he imme­dia­te­ly added – a com­mu­ni­ca­tion and a jour­na­li­sm and a Church outsi­de of time and histo­ry. “Saint Augustine reminds us of this when he said, ‘Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times’.”

This is not the fir­st time that the Augustinian Robert F. Prevost has addres­sed the issue of the media. On October 11, 2012, he dedi­ca­ted to this very topic the remarks he made at the synod con­ve­ned by Benedict XVI on “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

The Holy See press offi­ce and L’Osservatore Romano, as was the norm at the time, publi­shed eve­ry day a sum­ma­ry of each set of remarks. And so they did for what was said by the then prior gene­ral of the Order of Saint Augustine.

But it is the full text of his remarks that is asto­ni­shing, for the acu­te­ness of the dia­gno­sis of the media­tic distor­tions of today’s socie­ty, but even more for the refe­ren­ce to the Fathers of the Church – from Augustine to Ambrose to Leo the Great to Gregory of Nyssa – as tea­chers bril­liant in taking up the chal­len­ges of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of their time, and the­re­fo­re in under­stan­ding how to best evan­ge­li­ze the socie­ty of the late empi­re.

Prevost him­self pre­ser­ved his remarks at the 2012 synod in two videos recor­ded at the time by Catholic News Service, the agen­cy of the bishops’ con­fe­ren­ce of the United States.

And again Catholic News Service, after Prevost’s elec­tion as pope, made avai­la­ble a clear-cut video inter­view with him of about half an hour, con­duc­ted that same year by Francis X. Rocca, again on the media and evan­ge­li­za­tion.

Below is the trans­cript of Prevost’s remarks at the 2012 synod.

While the three videos are avai­la­ble to all on this page of the blog of Professor Leonardo Lugaresi, an emi­nent scho­lar of the Fathers of the Church.

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The Church Fathers and the Media of Their Time. A Lesson for Today

by Robert F. Prevost

(Remarks at the synod on evan­ge­li­za­tion, October 11, 2012)

Western mass media is extraor­di­na­ri­ly effec­ti­ve in foste­ring within the gene­ral public enor­mous sym­pa­thy for beliefs and prac­ti­ces that are at odds with the Gospel; for exam­ple, abor­tion, homo­se­xual life­sty­le, eutha­na­sia. Religion is, at best, tole­ra­ted by mass media as tame and quaint when it does not acti­ve­ly oppo­se posi­tions on ethi­cal issues that the media have embra­ced as their own.

However, when reli­gious voi­ces are rai­sed in oppo­si­tion to the­se posi­tions, mass media can tar­get reli­gion, labe­ling it as ideo­lo­gi­cal and insen­si­ti­ve in regard to the so-called vital needs of peo­ple in the con­tem­po­ra­ry world.

The sym­pa­thy for anti-Christian life­sty­le choi­ces that mass media fosters is so bril­lian­tly and art­ful­ly ingrai­ned in the viewing public that when peo­ple hear the Christian mes­sa­ge, it often ine­vi­ta­bly seems ideo­lo­gi­cal and emo­tio­nal­ly cruel by con­tra­st to the osten­si­ble huma­ne­ness of the anti-Christian per­spec­ti­ve.

Catholic pastors who pre­ach again­st the lega­li­za­tion of abor­tion or the rede­fi­ni­tion of mar­ria­ge are por­trayed as being ideo­lo­gi­cal­ly dri­ven, seve­re, and unca­ring, not becau­se of any­thing they say or do, but becau­se their audien­ces con­tra­st their mes­sa­ge with the sym­pa­the­tic, caring tones of media-produced ima­ges of human beings who, becau­se they are caught in moral­ly com­plex life situa­tions, opt for choi­ces that are made to appear as heal­th­ful and good.

Note, for exam­ple, how alter­na­ti­ve fami­lies com­pri­sed of same-sex part­ners and their adop­ted chil­dren are so beni­gn­ly and sym­pa­the­ti­cal­ly por­trayed in tele­vi­sion pro­grams and cine­ma today.

If the new evan­ge­li­za­tion is going to coun­ter the­se mass media-produced distor­tions of reli­gious and ethi­cal rea­li­ty suc­ces­sful­ly, pastors, pre­a­chers, tea­chers, and cate­chists are going to have to beco­me far more infor­med about the con­text of evan­ge­li­zing in a world domi­na­ted by mass media.

The Church Fathers offe­red a for­mi­da­ble respon­se to tho­se non-Christian and anti-Christian lite­ra­ry and rhe­to­ri­cal for­ces at work throu­ghout the Roman Empire in sha­ping the reli­gious and ethi­cal ima­gi­na­tions of the day.

The “Confessions” of St. Augustine, with its cen­tral ima­ge of the “cor inquie­tum,” has sha­ped the way that Western Christians and non-Christians rei­ma­gi­ne the adven­tu­re of reli­gious con­ver­sion.

In his “City of God,” Augustine used the tale of Alexander the Great’s encoun­ter with a cap­tu­red pira­te to iro­ni­ze the sup­po­sed moral legi­ti­ma­cy of the Roman Empire.

Church Fathers, among them John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Leo the Great, Gregory of Nissa, were not great rhe­to­ri­cians inso­far as they were great pre­a­chers; they were great pre­a­chers becau­se they were fir­st great rhe­to­ri­cians.

In other words, their evan­ge­li­zing was suc­ces­sful in great part becau­se they under­stood the foun­da­tions of social com­mu­ni­ca­tion appro­pria­te to the world in which they lived. Consequently, they under­stood with enor­mous pre­ci­sion the tech­ni­ques throu­gh which popu­lar reli­gious and ethi­cal ima­gi­na­tions of their day were mani­pu­la­ted by the cen­ters of secu­lar power in that world.

Moreover, the Church should resi­st the temp­ta­tion to belie­ve that it can com­pe­te with modern mass media by tur­ning the sacred litur­gy into spec­ta­cle.

Here again, Church Fathers such as Tertullian remind us today that visual spec­ta­cle is the domain of the “sae­cu­lum,” and that our pro­per mis­sion is to intro­du­ce peo­ple to the natu­re of Mystery, as an anti­do­te to spec­ta­cle.

(Translated by Matthew Sherry: traduttore@hotmail.com)

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Sandro Magister is past “vati­ca­ni­sta” of the Italian wee­kly L’Espresso.
The late­st arti­cles in English of his blog Settimo Cielo are on this page.
But the full archi­ve of Settimo Cielo in English, from 2017 to today, is acces­si­ble.
As is the com­ple­te index of the blog www.chiesa, which pre­ce­ded it.