This article is a methodological continuation of the content presented in the first part of the author's research (“Media Education and the New Evangelization. Part One: Media Components and Challenges”, Verbum Vitae 37 [2020] 407-425) and represents an implementation of the concepts outlined there. In that previous text, the author demonstrated that pursuing a new evangelization in the Church demands the media education of evangelizers and their cooperation with the leaders of media education. This present article is aimed at formulating pastoral postulates and educational proposals based on the issues and connections that emerged. The first section outlines the postulates and educational proposals relating to those in charge of ongoing formation and who serve in the Church on the basis of the canonical authorization to teach (missio canonica). The second section contains postulates that apply to the formation of lay people and future clergy in preparing for evangelization in the Church. The third section focuses on a group of postulates concerning school religious education in light of the current Core Curriculum of the Catechesis of the Catholic Church in Poland (2018). This paper concludes with four research issues in the area of media education in the Church in the context of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The methods of the third research stage borrow from the methodological paradigm of pastoral theology, mainly in its methods of analysis and synthesis, and have been applied in the article.
This article represents the first instalment of a two-part study on the relationship between media education and the new evangelization. The author puts forward a claim that pursuing the new evangelization in the Church demands the media education of the evangelizers and their cooperation with leaders in media education. Proving this thesis advances via three stages: (1) Outlining selected components of the media context of the new evangelization, in light of selected theses from the Church Magisterium; (2) Discussing selected challenges for both media education and the new evangelization; and (3) Presenting selected postulates and educational proposals for media literacy formation and the new evangelization. This last part outlines five media components of the new evangelization, along with three main challenges for both media and the new evangelization, stemming from their interrelationship. The main research methods used in this article are: the Magisterial method, sub ratione Dei, and comparative synthesis.
In response to the rapid spread of the coronavirus epidemic, the state authorities in Poland—as in other countries—decided to introduce various restrictions on rights and freedoms, including the freedom to practise religion. The purpose of this study is to analyse and evaluate the position taken by the ministers of the Catholic Church in Poland and her faithful towards these restrictions during the first wave of the pandemic. An analysis of source material, including documents published by representatives of the Conference of Polish Bishops and diocesan bishops (or curial deputy officials), leads to the conclusion that, in their official messages, the bishops virtually unanimously supported the restrictions imposed by the state, often granting them the sanction of canon law, or introducing even more restrictive solutions in their own dioceses. Moreover, an analysis of the media coverage of the first wave of the pandemic, as well as sociological opinion research focusing on Poland’s Catholic faithful, concludes that both the faithful and ‘rank-and-file’ clergy exhibited a polarised assessment of the stance adopted by the bishops towards the restrictions. However, this analysis allows for the refutation of the claim expressed in the literature, and shared by some of the faithful, about the bishops’ excessive submissiveness to the state authorities. Our research proves that this claim somewhat distorts the reality. Rather, the attitude of the hierarchs of the Church needs to be seen as an expression of their responsibility for the common good. More deserving of criticism, on the other hand, is the excessive focus of the ecclesiastical message of this period on the restrictions on the freedom to practise religion, while the right of the faithful to the spiritual goods of the Church was relegated to the background (Can. 213 CIC-1983). In adopting the research framework developed by Joseph Cardijn (‘see–judge–act’), our analysis concludes with the recommendation that, should a similar crisis arise in the future, the institution of the Church should rather focus its message to the faithful on securing the said right in the context of the state-imposed restrictions, by adopting the attitude typical of that of an addressee of legal norms, in line with the conclusions drawn from its own autonomy and independence as underlying principles of the State-Church relationship in both Church teachings and Polish law.
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