Message of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church at the anniversary of 5 years of activity of Basilica News Agency, Sunday, 16 June 2013:
Having known the fact that
the announcement of the Word of God represents for the Church her
primordial vocation (Matthew 28: 18-20, Acts 1:8, etc) the new technology and means of mass communication contribute to the intensification of the mission of the Church in society. Therefore, during the last few years the Romanian Patriarchate has increased its mission through the modern means of mass communication (media), but not as a substitute for the traditional pastoral service, which favours the direct personal contact between priest and faithful, but as a technical support designed to make the liturgical, cultural, catechetic, social and philanthropic life of the Church known in today's society.
In this sense, set up in 2007, at the feast of Saint Pious Dimitrios the New, Protector of Bucharest
(27 October), Basilica Press Centre has developed, under the protection of the Most Holy Trinity, a necessary fruitful activity engaged through its branches -
Trinitas Radio, Trinitas Television, Lumina publications, Basilica News Agency and the Press Office - in the responsible service of the Word and in its transmission in society.
One of the missionary means promoted in today's national and international media space is Basilica News Agency set up at the same time with the Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate and operating through basilica.ro website. It started operating on 16 June 2008, the feast of the Holy Trinity, having become a kaleidoscope of the daily church reality and fulfilling its vocation to inform and form the ecclesiastic thought.
The Christian media discipleship achieved through the News Agency as informative and formative transmission, in public, of the personal and ecclesiastic faith, constitutes a significant help for the missionary work of the Church and for the cultivation of the good values and deeds stemmed from faith as expressions of man's communion with God in the present life and as a foretaste of the eternal life in the Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity.
In an epoch in which internet has become, day by day, the most important means of mass communication, the News Agency of the Romanian Patriarchate reflects through website basilica.ro, the reality of the Romanian ecclesiastic life through the news, documents, and communiqués published.
Therefore, the news becomes communication when it is transmitted not as a simple piece of information, but in the light of the confession of faith through the religious event presented to the large audience. The photos taken at the event and the relations presented are often taken over by some other press centres or trusts, increasing its good reflection of the dynamics of the church life in mass media.
The members of the
Basilica News Agency harmoniously combine the professional experience, the missionary conscience and enthusiasm of the youth,
because they are media servants of the love of Christ for people and of the Church mission in society. Â
At the anniversary of five years of existence of
Basilica News Agency, we congratulate all its employees, as well as those who access the website of the Agency and pray the Most Holy Trinity to bless the truth of faith as light of the holy life lived under the sign of peace and joy, of the brotherly love and of the cooperation on the way to salvation, of the people's communion with God and with one another.
†Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
