Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This year, the theme for World Communications Day, "The Media:
Modern Forum for Promoting the Role of Women in Society",
recognizes that the communications media play a crucial role not
only in promoting justice and equality for women but in fostering
appreciation for their specific feminine gifts, which elsewhere I
have called the "genius" of women (cf. Mulieris Dignitatem, 30;
Letter to Women, 10).
Last year, in my Letter to Women, I sought to advance a
dialogue, especially with women themselves, on what it means to be
a woman in our time (cf. No. 1). I also pointed out some of "the
obstacles which in so many parts of the world still keep women from
being fully integrated into social, political and economic life"
(No. 4). This is a dialogue which people in the communications
media can, indeed have an obligation to, foster and support.
People in the media often become advocates, and commendably so, of
the voiceless and the marginalized. They are in a unique position
also to stimulate public consciousness with regard to two serious
issues concerning women in today's world.
First, as I noted in my Letter, motherhood is often penalized
rather than rewarded, even though humanity owes its very survival
to those women who have chosen to be wives and mothers (cf. No. 4).
It is certainly an injustice that such women should be
discriminated against, economically or socially, precisely for
following that fundamental vocation. Likewise I pointed out that
there is an urgent need to achieve real equality in every area:
equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, fairness
in career advancement, equality of spouses with regard to family
rights, and the recognition of everything that is part of the
rights and duties of citizens in a democratic State (cf. No. 4).
Secondly, the advancement of women's genuine emancipation is
a matter of justice, which can no longer be overlooked; it is also
a question of society's welfare. Fortunately, there is a growing
awareness that women must be enabled to play their part in the
solution of the serious problems of society and of society's
future. In every area, "a greater presence of women in society
will prove most valuable, for it will help to manifest the
contradictions present when society is organized solely according
to the criteria of efficiency and productivity, and it will force
systems to be redesigned in a way which favours the processes of
humanization which mark the 'civilization of love'" (ibid., No. 4).
The "civilization of love" consists, most particularly, in a
radical affirmation of the value of life and of the value of love.
Women are especially qualified and privileged in both of these
areas. Regarding life, although not alone responsible for
affirming its intrinsic value, women enjoy a unique capacity for
doing so because of their intimate connection with the mystery of
life's transmission. Regarding love, women can bring to every
aspect of life, including the highest levels of decision-making,
that essential quality of femininity which consists in objectivity
of judgment, tempered by the capacity to understand in depth the
demands of interpersonal relationships.
The communications media, including the press, the
cinema, radio and television, the music industry and computer
networks, represent the modern forum where information is received
and transmitted rapidly to a global audience, where ideas are
exchanged, where attitudes are formed - and, indeed, where a new
culture is being shaped. The media are therefore destined to
exercise a powerful influence in determining whether society fully
recognizes and appreciates not only the rights but also the special
gifts of women.
Sadly though, we often see not the exaltation but the
exploitation of women in the media. How often are they treated not
as persons with an inviolable dignity but as objects whose purpose
is to satisfy others' appetite for pleasure or for power? How
often is the role of woman as wife and mother undervalued or even
ridiculed? How often is the role of women in business or
professional life depicted as a masculine caricature, a denial of
the specific gifts of feminine insight, compassion and
understanding, which so greatly contribute to the "civilization of
love"?
Women themselves can do much to foster better treatment of
women in the media: by promoting sound media education programmes,
by teaching others, especially their families, to be discriminating
consumers in the media market, by making known their views to
production companies, publishers, broadcasting networks and
advertisers with regard to programmes and publications which insult
the dignity of women or debase their role in society. Moreover,
women can and should prepare themselves for positions of
responsibility and creativity in the media, not in conflict with or
imitation of masculine roles but by impressing their own "genius"
on their work and professional activity.
The media would do well to focus on the true heroines of
society, including the saintly women of the Christian tradition, as
role models for the young and for future generations. Nor can we
forget, in this respect, the many consecrated women who have
sacrificed all to follow Jesus and to dedicate themselves to prayer
and to the service of the poor, the sick, the illiterate, the
young, the old, the handicapped. Some of these women are
themselves involved in the communications media - working so that
"the poor have the Gospel preached to them" (cf. Lk 4:18).
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord" (Lk 1:46). The
Blessed Virgin Mary used these words in responding to the
salutation of her cousin Elizabeth, thus acknowledging the "great
things" that God had done in her. The image of women communicated
by the media should include the recognition that every feminine
gift proclaims the greatness of the Lord, the Lord who has
communicated life and love, goodness and grace, the Lord who is the
source of the dignity and equality of women, and of their special
"genius".
My prayer is that this Thirtieth World Communications Day will
encourage all those involved in the media of social communication,
especially the sons and daughters of the Church, to promote the
genuine advancement of women's dignity and rights, by projecting a
true and respectful image of their role in society, and by bringing
out "the full truth about women" (Letter to Women, No. 12).
From the Vatican, 24 January 1996