Dear friends,

The Vatican Television Center, commissioned by Blessed John Paul II, was born on October 22nd, 1983. On this path there has been much donein these thirty years of activity, let us thank the Lord! Now more technological challenges have been opened, as I was able to tell you in the message on the occasion of your recent Conference. They are challenges to which we must not flinch, to stay firm “in the evangelical perspective in this kind of global highway of communication” (Message to CTV, Oct. 18, 2013). Thank you!

First of all I would like to thank you all, not only for the professionalism that is recognized around the world today, but above all for the availability and discretion that I witness every day and in which you accompany with.

I would like to express as well a special thank you, in this festive occasion, to your families, because, as pointed out by the Director Msgr. Vigano, you live a weekly agenda on the commitments of the Pope! It is not a small sacrifice, I imagine, and for that I am not only grateful to you, but I assure you of my prayers for all of you, in particular, for your children. The Pope does not want to clutter up your family life. But I thank you for your patience.

I would like to entrust to you some brief thoughts.

Play as a team. The effectiveness of the pastoral care of communication is possible by creating bonds, by converging around shared projects on a series of subjects; a “union of purpose and strength” (Decr. Inter mirifica, 21). We know this i not easy, but if you help each other to become a team everything becomes lighter and, above all, also the style of your work will be a witness of communion.

Be professionals at the service of the Church. Your work is of great quality, and so it must be for the task assigned to you. But your professionalism should always be at the service of the Church, in everything: in filming, directing, in editorial choices, in administration...Everything can be done with a style, a perspective that is ecclesial, that of the Holy See. It is necessary that the communication of CTV pours out to the audience, the faithful and the “distant”, the scent and the hope of the Gospel.

I conclude by thanking all the members of the Administration Council that wisely guides and leads CTV in its work. A special thought goes the friends who are involved in various capacities in the great family of CTV. Alone we cannot do much, but together we can be at the service of the whole world, spreading the truth and beauty of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Thank you very much!