“Searching for the Truth in order to Share it with Others” is the theme for this year’s World Communications Day. Pope Benedict XVI said in a recent message that “just as we have bioethics in the field of medicine and in scientific research linked to life,” there should also be “info-ethics” in mass communication. Indeed, we must not let the media become “spokesmen for economic materialism and ethical relativism.”<br/><br/>
To achieve the theme of the WCD, the ideal first step is to educate the audience of the media. In this, the Pope says, “The truth which makes us free is Christ, because only he can respond fully to the thirst for life and love that is present in the human heart. Those who have encountered him and have enthusiastically welcomed his message experience the irrepressible desire to share and communicate this truth. As Saint John writes, ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life … we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.’ (1 Jn 1:1-3).”<br/><br/>
When our hearts and souls are oriented toward heavenly matters, temporal attractions will be off the list of things we want to pursue. Let me share with you a personal experience: Ever since I started to spend more time adoring the Eucharist a few years ago, I have stopped reading “gossip” magazines.