The Vatican’s communication head, Paolo Ruffini, told a group of Asian bishops that the Church should communicate through love and sharing more than technology and techniques.
Ruffini was speaking at the opening of the April 15-20 program organized by the Bishops’ Institute for Social Communication, which functions under the Asian bishops’ Office for Social Communication in Bangkok.
“Evangelization is not dependent on media,” and the “secret of communication is not technique but love,” Ruffni, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, told the 13 bishops attending the program.
The Church needs lessons from Asia on communion, Rufini said, adding that Asia thrives on communication.
The word communication comes from the Latin word “communicare,” meaning to ‘make common’ or share, Ruffini said and asked the bishops to stress the concept of sharing and togetherness for better communication.
“Christian communication, like Christ’s, must be marked by self-giving and not self-satisfaction prevalent in business and marketing,” he said.
Before the internet and social media networks arrived, the Church existed as a network. However, the Church must plan to welcome digital culture to “evangelize the world and strengthen communion among all peoples,” Ruffini said.
Digital culture is always changing, and as the Church, “we must evangelize it with love, communion, and social justice.”
Ruffini stressed that all Christians are “digital missionaries, called to be disciples in the environment where they are — parish, school, and even social media.”
The five-day program is the ninth such program and is based on the theme: Synodal Church: Episcopal Ministry and Communication.
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