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                                  VIS-Press releases   
      
   THE CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION AND NEW LANGUAGES   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 3 NOV 2010 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office at midday today a   
   preference was held to present the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council   
   for Culture, which is due to be held from 10 to 13 November on the theme: "The   
   Culture of Communication and New Languages".   
      
   Participating in today's press conference were Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi,   
   Msgr. Pasquale Iacobone and Richard Rouse, respectively president, head of the   
   "Art and Faith" department, and head of the "Communication and Languages"   
   department of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and Bishop Gerhard Ludwig   
   Muller of Regensburg, Germany, who is a member of the Pontifical Council for   
   Culture.   
      
   Msgr. Iacobone explained how the plenary will examine "the use of language and   
   communication to study the current situation and suggest guidelines for action   
   in the evangelising mission of the Church".   
      
   The participants in the plenary will discuss "the new languages, in particular   
   cinema, music, figurative and plastic arts, the internet and multimedia   
   platforms, in order to discover the words, colours, sounds and images capable   
   of presenting Christian life as a valid experience for everyone today.   
      
   "In order to favour inter-personal communication there will be no written texts   
   to read or follow but conversations with experts such as Ennio Morricone, Dario   
   Vigano, Robert Barron and the managing director of Microsoft Italia". Msgr.   
   Iacobone explained.   
      
   The plenary will also serve to examine "the characteristics of interactivity   
   and participation, of clarity and simplicity - while avoiding simplification -   
   and to study figurative and narrative languages in order to transmit to our   
   fellows what we have received".   
      
   Bishop Muller then presented the twelfth German-language volume of Joseph   
   Ratzinger's "Opera Omina", entitled "Kunder des Wortes und Diener eurer Freude   
   - Theologie und Spiritualitat des Weihesakramentes" (Announcers of the Word and   
   Servants of your Joy. Theology and Spirituality of the Sacrament of Holy   
   Orders).   
      
   Bishop Muller, who is overseeing the publication of the complete works of   
   Joseph Ratzinger, explained how the contents of this latest volume cover nearly   
   half a century, beginning with a number of texts which predate by some years   
   the opening of Vatican Council II. "That fundamental event in recent   
   ecclesiastical history is usually associated, depending on the point of view,   
   with the beginning of a transformation in keeping with the spirit of the times,   
   or with a profound crisis in the Church and particularly in the priesthood", he   
   said.   
      
   In section "A" of the book, entitled "Theology of the Sacrament of Holy   
   Orders", Joseph Ratzinger analyses the causes of this crisis and "illustrates   
   the biblical foundation and coherent historical-dogmatic development of the   
   Sacrament of Holy Orders". In section "B", entitled "Servants of your Joy",   
   readers will find "a collection of meditations on spirituality already   
   published as an individual book with the same title". Section "C" contains   
   "various homilies delivered on the occasion of consecrations of priests and   
   deacons, first Masses and jubilees".   
      
   "In order to rediscover priestly identity in the relationship with Christ we   
   must be ready to consider ourselves as servants of the Word and witnesses of   
   God in the succession of Christ, and to live in communion with Him. To this   
   end, the priest must have a good theological formation and a permanent   
   reference in academic theology".   
      
   With the writings in this book Joseph Ratzinger "indicates the way out of the   
   crisis into which the Catholic priesthood has fallen as a result of inadequate   
   theological and sociological approaches, and of declarations that tend to   
   arouse in many priests who began their journey with love and zeal, a sense of   
   insecurity and discomfort concerning their role within the Church". This   
   volume, Bishop Muller concluded, "achieves the desire of its author to dedicate   
   an entire book of his complete works to the theology of the Sacrament of Holy   
   Orders".   
   OP/VIS 20101103 (640)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
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    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)