The Catholic Church must establish a presence in the digital world of communications or risk being at the margins of people's lives, said the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. "If the church is not present and does not share the good news of God's love for all people in this world, then we risk becoming marginal to the lives of many and are failing our mission to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth," Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli told more than 250 people at the Brooklyn Diocese's annual celebration of World Communications Day. The May 22 event was organized by the DeSales Media Group, the parent company of The Tablet, the diocesan newspaper. Many dioceses mark World Communications Day June 1. This year's theme is "Communication at the service of an authentic culture of encounter." Before the archbishop's keynote address, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Msgr. Kieran Harrington, president of DeSales, presented Archbishop Celli with the group's St. Francis de Sales Award. Archbishop Celli was honored for being instrumental in starting Pope Benedict XVI's Twitter account (@Pontifex), now handled by Pope Francis. He also oversaw the creation of the Pope App, which allows followers to receive updates regarding important papal events.
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...