His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a festive speech on Monday on the patronal feast of the Basilica Media Centre. In his message addressed to the Romanian Patriarchate’s journalists, he evoked the activity and role of the media in the mission of the Church.
“Perfect intra-Trinitarian love is the core and foundation of the Church’s media message and communion, that is, the gathering and union of human persons in the love of the Most Holy Trinity is the goal of ecclesial communication,” His Beatitude conveyed.
The Mission of the BASILICA Media Centre – A Call to Communion, Spreading Joy, and Comfort in Suffering
The Feast of the Holy Trinity, celebrated by Orthodox Christians every year on the second day after Pentecost Sunday or on Whit Monday, is also the patronal feast of the BASILICA Media Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate.
For the journalists engaged in the Church’s media mission, this day is both an occasion of joy and communal prayer and an opportunity to reaffirm and reawaken the purpose for which the BASILICA Media Centre was established: to proclaim the communion of love of the Holy Trinity and the boundless love of the Triune God for humanity.
The perfect intra-Trinitarian love forms the core and foundation of the Church’s media message, while communion, the gathering and union of human persons in the love of the Holy Trinity, is the goal of ecclesial communication.
The need for communion, deeply rooted in the human being, is guided by Christian communicators to the only place where this need can be authentically fulfilled: in the church, in front of the Holy Chalice from which Christ the Lord is truly and fully communicated.
In this light, Christian communicators more clearly and consciously see their role in initiating and mediating the connection between contemporary individuals and Christ and His Church so that it can unfold directly and be fulfilled eucharistically.
Unfortunately, there are also many people whose age or illness has temporarily deprived them of the joy of communion experienced within the community of faith.
From hospital beds or the loneliness of their own homes, many elderly or sick people experience the suffering of isolation and the longing for communion.
The Church’s media work is an absolute comfort and a great blessing for them.
Televised or broadcast services, shows, and films that present the life of churches and monasteries, printed or electronic articles with spiritual content or current information, are a consolation for the elderly and sick and a way through which they continue to feel connected to the life of the Church and the community, even if in a weakened or diminished form.
In anticipation of the priest who brings them Holy Communion or even the moment when their eyes will blink for the last time, the elderly or sick person watches, or perhaps only listens to, the Divine Liturgy and Holy Unction, other services and daily prayers, psalms, and beautiful church hymns.
For many of these people, television or radio is the only presence that can accompany and beautify their lives in moments when loved ones are far away and suffering and the end is ever closer.
The many activities carried out during the past year, 2023, dedicated to the pastoral care of the elderly, and this year, 2024, dedicated to the pastoral care and assistance of the sick, have confirmed that the Church’s media work carried out through the BASILICA Media Centre brings much spiritual benefit and remarkable comfort to those in suffering and loneliness.
During pastoral visits and philanthropic actions, priests and volunteers have discovered that in almost every home where an elderly or sick person lives, there is always a television or radio broadcasting a divine service or a newspaper being read.
Through its five-component structure, the BASILICA Media Centre is like a hand that caresses and blesses all those whom old age and illness have physically bent. This hand, extended by the Church out of love, lifts and strengthens, renews, and shows them to Christ, the Good Shepherd and Physician of souls and bodies.
We congratulate all the workers and collaborators of the BASILICA Media Centre components, namely Radio TRINITAS, TRINITAS TV, LUMINA Publications, the BASILICA News Agency, and the Press and Public Relations Office, for all the missionary work carried out for the benefit of the elderly and sick, as well as for the numerous editorial projects dedicated to young people and children or promoting Romanian cultural and spiritual values.
We also thank the dioceses and all those who support the BASILICA Media Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate in continuing and developing this particularly necessary work in the contemporary world.
We pray to the Holy Trinity to bless all the listeners of Radio TRINITAS, the viewers of TRINITAS TV, the readers of LUMINA Newspaper, the BASILICA News Agency, and the Press Office texts, granting them peace and joy, light, and much help in all good works!
Many and blessed years!
† Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
