D. Media at the service of ecclesial communion

10. Along with all this, it is necessary constantly to recall the importance of the fundamental right of dialogue and information within the Church, as described in Communio et Progressio, ²⁰ and to continue to seek effective means, including a responsible use of media of social communications, for realizing and protecting this right. In this connection we also have in mind the affirmations of the Code of Canon Law, that, besides showing obedience to the pastors of the Church, the faithful "are at liberty to make known their needs, especially their spiritual needs, and their wishes" to these pastors, ²¹ and that the faithful, in keeping with their knowledge, competence, and position, have "the right, indeed at times the duty, to express to the pastors their views on matters concerning the good of the Church^{". 22}

Partly this is a matter of maintaining and enhancing the Church's credibility and effectiveness. But, more fundamentally, it is one of the ways of realizing in a concrete manner the Church's character as communion, rooted in and mirroring the intimate communion of the Trinity. Among the members of the community of persons who make up the Church, there is a radical equality in dignity and mission which arises from baptism and underlies hierarchical structure and diversity of office and function; and this equality necessarily will express itself in an honest and respectful sharing of information and opinions.

It will be well to bear in mind, however, in cases of dissent, that "it is not by seeking to exert the pressure of public opinion that one contributes to the clarification of doctrinal issues and renders service to the truth".²³ In fact, "not all ideas which circulate among the People of God" are to be "simply and purely identified with the sense of the Faith". ²⁴

Why does the Church insist that people have the right to receive correct information? Why does the Church emphasize its right to proclaim authentic Gospel truth? Why does the Church stress the responsibility of its pastors to communicate the truth and to form the faithful to do the same? It is because the whole understanding of what communication in the Church means is based upon the realization that the Word of God communicates himself.

Ibidem, nn. 114-121, pp. 634-636.

Cf. Canon 212.2, in AAS, LXXV, 2 (1983), p. 34.

Cf. Canon 212.3, p. 34.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, n. 30, in AAS, LXXXII (1990), p. 1562.

Cf. ibidem, n. 35, p. 1565.