Helmuth Rolfes / Angela Ann Zukowski (ed.) Communicatio Socialis Challenge of Theology and Ministry in the Church Festschrift for Franz-Josef Eilers Bibliographic information published by Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. ISBN 978-3-89958-310-6 URN urn:nbn:de:0002-3101 URL http://www.uni-kassel.de/hrz/db4/extern/dbupress/publik/abstract.php?978-3-89958-310-6 2007, kassel university press GmbH, Kassel www.upress.uni-kassel.de Satz und Layout: Dr. Eva Oppermann, Kassel Umschlaggestaltung: Jörg Batschi Grafik Design, Kassel Druck und Verarbeitung: Unidruckerei der Universität Kassel Printed in Germany Franz-Josef Eilers SVD I Table of Contents Introduction 1 John Foley 6 Foreword Helmuth Rolfes Inter Mirifica, and What Followed: The Second Vatican Council as the Beginning of a New Era in the Relationship between the Church and the Media 8 Willi Henkel Areopagus of the Modern World 28 Giso Deussen The Cultures of Africa: Voiceless in the Internet 36 Ineke de Feijter The Concept of Dialogue and Its Ethical Implications: A Contribution to the Concept of Social Communication 48 Frances Forde Plude Religion and Mediated Popular Culture: The Need for Dialogue 70 Henry D’Souza Inter-Religious Dialogue as Communication 85 Sebastian Periannan Spirituality of Communication in the Context of “Communalism, Consumerism and Terrorism” 91 Daniela Frank Taking on the Challenge of Furthering Catholic Communications: An Ongoing Task in an Ever-Changing World 106 Angela Ann Zukowski Shifting Sands: Catechesis, Imagination and the Digital Culture 116 Jacob Srampickal Interdisciplinary Approach is Inevitable and a Major Challenge in Communication Studies 143 Pradip Thomas The Case for Communication in Theological Education 169 II Roberto M. Ebisa Radio Broadcasting in the Brazilian Amazon 178 Anthony Roman Building Digital Bridges: Considerations for Ministry in the Emerging Communication Landscape 184 Michael Schmolke Communication History and the Institutions of Communication 207 Joan Hemels A Dutch Miracle? The Rediscovery of Religion by Journalists in the Netherlands 224 In Celebration 246 List of Contributors 248 1 Introduction The term “Communicatio Socialis“ was coined at the Second Vatican Council. It comes from the Decretum de instrumentis communicationis socialis INTER th MIRIFICA, which was solemnly promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4 , 1963. In a short introduction to Inter Mirifica in a collection of basic documents concerning social communication which was edited by Franz-Josef Eilers, he draws his readers’ attention to the importance of this term: With the council decree a new terminology was created in the expression of “Social Communications”. The preparatory commission felt that expressions like ‘diffusion techniques’ or ‘audio-visual media’ or even ‘mass media’ or ‘mass communications’ would not express sufficiently the concerns, needs an perspectives of the church. Communication should not be restricted to mere technical means of transmission but rather should be concerned about communication as a process between and among humans. Thus the expression proposed was: the ‘instruments of social communication’ which would point to the communication of and in human society. This definitely goes beyond the mass media as press, radio, TV or film. (Church and Social Communication, Manila 1993, 57 f.) What Eilers states here about the special dimension of meaning of the term Communicatio Socialis has become part of his life’s program in his pastoral, missionary and scholarly work. According to the Council’s wishes, Franz-Josef Eilers understood Social Communication as a special challenge for both theology and ministry within the Church in our time. Already in 1968, a scholarly quarterly with the title Communicatio Socialis, which still exists today and is the only international quarterly for communication in Church and society in the German-speaking countries, was published. Its founder and leading editor for decades is Franz-Josef Eilers. Looking through the first volumes of the magazine, one finds highly regarded scholars as contributors; mainly from the field of media science, but also theologians and pastoral ministry leaders, as well as others from various fields of science and profession. The second contribution for the initial issue with the theme “Church and Communication” was written by Franz Cardinal König of Vienna, who was an important Council Father and one of the most influential leaders within the Church in the second half of the th 20 century. The first article in the first issue was written by Franz-Josef Eilers himself and bears the title “Publizistik als Aufgabe” [The Science of the Media as a Task]. Eilers reminds his readers of the Second Vatican Council, then just finished, and of the task. And the task articulated in the council’s decree Inter Mirifica is that it had become indispensable for the church to deal with the modern world which was considerably influenced by social communication in a constructive way. Eilers asks his readers to acknowledge the variety of modern media as a cultural merit of 2 humanity since, according to Christian belief, man is called upon by God to complete His creation by his actions. Thus, in Eilers’ convictions, the Church is confronted with the challenge to make the message of God’s realm shine also through its use of the media. In a remarkable manner, Eilers in his contributions for Communicatio Socialis strongly directs his readers’ interest to the ecclesiastical needs especially of the comparably young Churches outside Europe. Already in the first numbers he writes about questions of social communication concerning Africa, India, or Papua-New- Guinea, to give just a few examples. By setting main emphasis in this field, he adopts a perspective to which he has remained faithful for all of his life. It corresponds to his vocation as a missionary of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and is already visible in his Diploma thesis with the title Christliche Publizistik in Afrika. Eine erste Erkundung [Christian Media Science in Africa. A First Investigation] (Steyl 1964), which he wrote in Missionary Sciences at the Theological Seminary of the University of Munster, and then, of course, in his dissertation, which was published in 1967 with the title Zur Publizistik schriftloser Kulturen in Nordost-Neuguinea [The Media Science of Cultures Without Writing in the Northeast of New-Guinea]. In addition, as one of the founding fathers, Eilers has remarkably contributed to the development of the well-known Catholic Media Council (CAMECO), which is singular within the Church. He also served as the Executive Director for several years. In many of the Church’s global social communiation projects presented to CAMECO, Eilers was able to gain insight into the practical media work of the Church all over the world. This experience enabled him to offer sound advice to media projects presented to CAMECO for funding. As a consulter to the Pontifical Council of Social Communications over many years, Eilers knows the challenges of social communication for the theology and ministry of the whole Church from the highest level. Eilers leadership as the Director of the Office for Social Communication of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (OSC/FABC) and as an organizer of many important conferences for the Asian Churches until today, has demonstrated his untiring commitment for the needs of the Churches in Asian Countries. He has dedicated his entire being to revealing an open, caring and vulnerable compassionate heart for the Church of Asia. Finally, Eilers’ many scholarly essays and books, which have been translated into many languages, demonstrate that he is a specialist in the wide field of social communications. He continues to be able to critically read the signs of the times in the unfolding contemporary social communications mileu. His collection Church and Social Communication. Basic Documents, which contains important doctrinal texts about social communication, is meant as a study guide and has been edited several times and has been translated into several languages, has made well scattered texts well available, and therefore, they are read. His textbook Communicating in Community: An Introduction to Social Communication (Manila 1994) has several editions. In this text Eilers reveals a pastoral-theological attempt to write a textbook on social communications to enable students to systematically understand social communications in light of the intention of the Second Vatican Council and other related texts that followed on social communication. Communicating Between Cultures (Manila 1992) emerged from a textbook Eilers 3 prepared for the Gregorian University in Rome. The book impressively reveals how Eilers, writing from a strong Catholic perspective, was able to unfold an understanding of intercultural communication. His approach respected not only the single cultures and those aspects of social communication that would be lost if communication was only seen as mass communication, or media perceived as only mass media. Eilers insights into intercultural communication remain justified and dignified. Thus, a common thread can be found in Franz-Josef Eilers’ publications concerning Social Communication: In every single consideration about social communication he tries to make clear that communication always is a process