About WCD

Speak With the Heart: Veritatem Facientes in Caritate

The Holy Father, Pope Francis, will announce his World Communication Day message on January 24, 2023, the feast of St. Francis DeSales, patron saint of journalists.

About World Communications Day

What is it?
World Communications Day was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration that encourages us to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motion pictures, radio, television, and the internet) afford the Church to communicate the gospel message.

Where did it come from?
The celebration came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, which realized it must engage fully with the modern world. This realization is expressed in the opening statement of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes on “The Church in the Modern World”, which says: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anguishes of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anguishes of the followers of Christ as well.”

Why is it celebrated every year?
In setting it up on Sunday, May 7th, 1967, less than two years after the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI, knowing that the Church is truly and intimately linked with mankind and its history, wanted to draw attention to the communications media and the enormous power they have for cultural transformation.

Source: CatholicIreland.net