In a move that may mark the beginning of a more media-friendly pontificate, Benedict XVI devoted an audience on Saturday to members of the media:
3. Conscious of her mission and of the importance of the media, the Church has sought collaboration with the world of social communication, especially since Vatican Council II. Without a doubt, Pope John Paul II was the great author of that open and sincere dialogue, he who, during more than 26 years as Pope, maintained constant and fruitful relations with you who are engaged in social communications. And it was particularly to those responsible for social communications that he wished to dedicate one of his last documents, the apostolic letter of Jan. 24 in which he recalls that "our age is one of global communication, where so many moments of human existence unfold through media processes, or at least must be confronted with them" ("The Rapid Progress," No. 3).
I wish to continue this fruitful dialogue, and I share what Pope John Paul II observed regarding the fact that "the present development of social communications impels the Church to a sort of pastoral and cultural revision in order that it will be able to address the epochal change in which we are living" (Ibid., No. 8).