Media outlets urged: Listen, reflect on issues
In marking the 46th World Communication Day today, the Cebu Archdiocese urged mass media outlets to listen and reflect more, instead of speaking out on issues all the time.
“We would like to encourage local media practitioners not to speak all the time but to listen and reflect on the true meaning of communication,” said Msgr. Achilles Dakay, spokesman of the Cebu Archdiocese.
He said Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma will celebrate Mass at the St. Joseph Patriarch Parish in Mabolo at 5 p.m. today.
He said the event pays tribute to the importance and impact of mass media as an important tool for communication. This year’s celebration carries the theme “Silence and Word: Path of evangelization.”
Pope Benedict XVI in his message for the celebration this year emphasized the importance of silence as an integral element of communication.
The pope said in silence, ideas come and acquire depth and one understands better what one wants to say and expect from others.
“In its absence, words rich in content cannot exist. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves . . . we choose how to express ourselves,” said the Popes message.
“Attention should be paid to the various types of websites, applications and social networks which can help people today find time for reflection and authentic questioning, as well as making space for silence and occasions for prayer, meditation or sharing of the word of God,” said Pope Benedict.
World Communication Day is an annual event established by Pope Paul VI in 1967. The day encourages people to reflect on the challenges and opportunities that mass media has brought to the congregation.
Dakay also conveyed Archbishop’s Palma’s admonition to the Catholic faithful not to celebrate Flores de Mayo as a venue for fashion shows.
“The event is designed to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary and not for anything else,” Dakay said.
One of the traditions of the Flores De Mayo is the Santacruzan, a procession that often features young women and matrons in elaborate gowns with male escorts. The event is supposed to commemorate the finding of the True Cross by Queen Helena or St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor.
May as the month of Flores de Mayo is also associated with summer catechism classes for children. Little girls also dress up as angels in white robes with wings, and offer flowers in church to the Virgin Mary.
Flores de Mayo started in the mid-1800s when the Vatican proclaimed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
