Bernard MargueritteAn extract from a speech by ICF President Bernard Margueritte at the European University of Rome on 28 November 2008, on the theme “The Teaching of John Paul II and the Mission of the Media”. Click here to download the full text of the speech.

This is of course a calling for Christian people in the media, but by all means not for them alone. This is a calling for all people, who cherish spiritual values, no matter where they get them from, for all people of good will. We have to learn from each other. As a matter of fact, as wrote Saint-Exupéry: “to love is not to look at each other, it is to look together in the same direction”. Indeed, when in May 1999 I had- with the founder of “The international Communications Forum”, Bill Porter- the great privilege to speak to the Holy Father and when I said that we have in our organization a few agnostics but mostly people of faiths, of all faiths on earth, He was very happy and said: “Ok! That’s very good, that’s the way it should be!”

Indeed the call for globalization, not of money but of heart and love, the call for the respect of the dignity of the person did not start with us. When the ICF had a media conference in India I learned a splendid poem of the Atharva Veda:

“We are the birds of the same nest
We may wear different feathers
We may speak different tongues
We may believe in different religions
We may belong to different cultures
Yet, we share the same home, Earth

Born on the same planet
Covered by the same skies
Gazing at the same stars
Breathing the same air
We must learn to live together
Or, miserably to perish together
For, a person can live individually
But can only survive in a community”

And that was written 5000 years ago! What a magnificent call for the true globalisation our media should promote!

In fact, more and more media people realise that we have to change. But, as said John Paul II, “the positive development of the media at the service of the common good is a responsibility of each and every one” It is the task of the journalists, of the media owners, but also of the public, who by reading the honest newspaper or watching the intelligent TV programme is ultimately deciding which way the media will go.

As far as we are concerned, we, in the International Communications Forum, we try to promote the true mission of the media. Just to quote a few sentences of our “Sarajevo Commitment”, adopted in this bruised and symbolic city in 2000, we are convinced that:

 “we shall inform you to the best of our ability, with clarity and honesty, with independence of mind, of what is truly happening in the world at the level of the individual, the family, the community, the nation and the region. We shall present the facts and explain the facts, and some of us will aim with modesty to interpret them.  As we succeed in doing this, we believe that you, the people, will be enabled to make the right decisions, to elect and appoint the best leaders and to build a fair, just and compassionate society.

We seek a world in which everyone cares enough and everyone shares enough so that everyone will have enough; a world in which the work and wealth of the world are available to all at the exploitation of none…

We shall be working to raise up and not to drag down.  We shall challenge our politicians to work for the next generation and not the next election…We shall work to educate, through all the means of communication, generations who will be able to confront the challenges of their age with competence and vision.

We shall combine freedom with responsibility, talent with humility, privilege with service, comfort with sacrifice and concern with courage.  We realise that change in society begins with change in ourselves...

We shall not cease to strive until every gun is silent, every injustice righted and every human being enabled to live a life of satisfaction and purpose”.

Let me tell you that it was a great encouragement for us to get during the mentioned audience in 1999 the blessing of pope John Paul II “for our activity”.

At the end of all this, we can reach the conclusion that our problem is not the problem of the media. Media, the first Areopagus of modern times, as said John Paul II, are but a part of the broad picture. Our fight to restore the dignity of the media, to have media fulfilling their mission, serving the people, being a pillar of democracy and mutual understanding between people is only a part- and it was certainly seen as such by John Paul II- of our global fight to build the civilisation of love, to move from the civilization of materialism, hedonism, consumerism, hatred and violence to the civilization of respect for the human person, the civilization of life, yes the civilization of love.

We are facing now a time of great crisis (not only a financial crisis or even an economic crisis but a crisis of civilization) that may work like a catharsis, that may paradoxically give us a great opportunity for change. Pope Benedict XVI just said during the General Audience that we, the faithful, want “to see the end of this unjust world” and added: “of course we don’t want to witness now the end of the world. On the other hand however we do want the end of this unjust world. We also want that this world change profoundly, that starts a civilisation of love, that comes a world of justice, peace, without violence and hunger.”

Indeed I may repeat: the call for honest media, at the service of the dignity of the people, is but a part of our call for the civilisation of love. This is- following the teaching of pope John Paul II- our task for the XXI century, it is the task of the new generation, it is your magnificent, enthusiastic task. I have no doubt: you will stand up to it!