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"We must always lead others towards heaven. But we must lead those who live today, not those who lived ten or more centuries ago. We have to take the world and mankind as they are today, in order to do good today." Bl. James Alberione The Media as Wondrous Gifts of God, Given for Our Sanctification Part One: By Fr. Bob (Bernard R.) Bonnot, S.T.L., Ph.D. December 4, 2003 marks the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s approval of the first two of its sixteen documents. The second of them was Inter mirifica, which translates "among the wonders." It deals with the media. The first dealt with liturgy. This series of essays celebrates this significant anniversary of Inter mirifica. How and why is it significant? We are people who live in time. We are shaped by tradition. Our generation as Catholics has been heavily impacted by Vatican II, for better or worse. (I think for the better, big time!) We are still early in feeling the effect of Vatican II as ecumenical councils go. The Councils of Nicaea, Chalcedon and Constantinople occurred 1,700 years ago, but every Sunday we still recite the creed they formulated. The Councils of Trent, 400 years ago, and Vatican I, 133 years ago, stamped Catholic life until Vatican II and continue to provide the context within which the post-Vatican II Church grows. Vatican II itself has barely begun to shape us. Nonetheless, we can already see some of the difference it is making. In what ways? Too many to count, but at 40 years out on our Vatican II journey, we already discern three major impacts: (1) our sense that communion, communio, is at the heart of Catholic faith and life; (2) our understanding that God calls all baptized persons to holiness and to participation in the priestly work of Jesus; and (3) our awareness that our media-saturated and -dominated cultural environment is "among the wonders" with which God is favoring us in our times. I shall explore these themes here, concluding with a look through them into what the future requires of us. A beautiful aspect of Catholic faith is our grand sense of a tradition to which we are faithful but within which there is constant development. We believe that God is at work in human reality. Jesus talked about that conviction as the "Kingdom of God," that is, God’s reigning. He came to proclaim that reign, to make it manifest, to extend it. He promised to release the Spirit more fully to continue his work after his death and resurrection. Ecumenical councils are hugely significant moments in this reigning of God through time, this work of Jesus and the Spirit as it rolls forward and develops. There have been only twenty-one ecumenical councils in the Church’s 2,000-year history. We are blessed to live in the immediate wake of one of the most significant councils ever, Vatican II. It is wondrous. It is a blessing. And amazingly, the media are an important part of that Council’s significance. One of only sixteen documents issued by the Council is devoted to the "mass media," which the Vatican calls "instruments of social communication." So we celebrate the media in this 40th anniversary year of Inter mirifica. We celebrate because celebrations, like birthdays, help us realize what is going on in our lives and enable us to come to terms with where we are. I pray that these essays will help you feel the blessing of Vatican II anew, moving you from worry to wonder as regards the media, opening you more fully to the wonder of what God is doing in our times. Fr. Bob Bonnot is a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, U.S.A. currently serving as Senior Vice President of Programming for the Hallmark Channel in Los Angeles, California. Ordained in 1967, he has spent nearly 25 years in communication ministry.
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