Soziale Kommunikation und Wahrheitsverwaltung. Überlegungen zu Aetatis novae Nr. 10 über die Medien im Dienst der kirchlichen Gemeinschaft

Abstract

In relativ kurzem zeitlichem Abstand wurden in Rom zwei Medieninstruktionen veröffentlicht. Am 22.02.1992 erschien nach einem mehr als fünfjährigen Diskussionsprozeß der Mitglieder des "Päpstlichen Rates für die sozialen Kommunikationsmittel" und der entsprechenden internationalen Beratergremien endlich das lang erwartete Nachfolgedokument zu Communio et progressio: die Pastoralinstruktion "Aetatis novae" zur sozialen Kommunikation zwanzig Jahre nach Communio et progressio. (...) 

English

The new pastoral instruction "Aetatis novae" has not taken back or canceled anything from "Communio et progressio". This is the official interpretation of the New media document. This interpretation does not stand up to critical examination, especially when taking into account the instruction published at the same time by the congregation of faith which lists the currently operative law of CIC in dealing with the instruments of social communication. One has to make a positive note of the realistic view of the mass media in "Aetatis novae" in which theological excessiveness is avoided. In "Aetatis novae" one can note a decisive shift of emphasis in comparison with "Communio et progressio" as regards the Statements on inner-ecclesiastical communication. In this sphere the statements of "Aetatis novae" come close to certain statements of the instruction of the congregation of faith as regards the collected legal regulations. Communication is reduced to the communication of the truth from top to bottarn which, when in doubt or in conflict, is to be achieved with the means of the CIC. The backgmund of this completely one-sided model of communication is formed by the understanding of a church that teaches and administers the truth. The concept of evangelization for which the instruments of social communication are, according to "Aetatis novae", insdispensable nowadays, is also determined by this ecclesiological narrowness.