On the Feast Day of St Augustine of Canterbury, Cardinal Vincent Nichols adopted St Augustine as a ‘fine patron’ for the work of communications.
In his homily at the CCN’s World Communications Day Mass and Lecture at St Patrick’s in Soho, London, the Cardinal said that Augustine ‘showed many of the characteristics that we too need’.
These characteristics include ‘the importance of courage’ and ‘of symbols to get across the very heart of the message’.
The Cardinal said that the saint had a ‘clear strategy’ to face the circumstances of his time. ‘He came face to face with the pagan society not in order to contradict it, but it order to offer its fulfilment. In practice this meant not seeking to empty or destroy the pagan temples, not to undermine the festivals and rhythms of life, but to convert them, to fulfil them, to bring them into the service of the one true God whose Gospel he was announcing’.
The World Communications Day Mass and lecture is organised by the Catholic Communications Network (CCN) – the media office for the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Following the Mass, Lord Patten of Barnes, the President of the Vatican’s Media Committee delivered a lecture outlining his committee’s recommendations for the future of the Vatican’s media operations.
Using the link below or in the top right-hand corner of this page you can download the Cardinal’s full Homily.
