Pope Benedict XVI has reminded the media of their role in promoting solidarity and drawing world attention to situations of serious need.

Speaking about today’s celebration of World Communications Day, the pope said the Catholic Church was attentive to the media not only because they could help spread the Gospel, but because of the media’s general ability to inform people.

He made the comments last Sunday in an address to pilgrims who had gathered at the Vatican for the midday recitation of the Regina Coeli prayer. In praising those who had participated that day in the Walk the World marathon sponsored by the World Food Programme, he spoke also about today’s observance of World Communications Day.

Pope Benedict noted that the marathon was designed to raise awareness about the need for quick, concrete action “to guarantee everyone, particularly children, freedom from hunger”.

He inferred that the aim of the marathon was therefore not unlike one of the intended roles of the media – to raise awareness about world needs.

In his first message for World Communications Day, the pope urged the media to act in the common good. He said by bringing information, news or entertainment to the public, media workers should seek to contribute “to the propagation of all that is good and true” and help foster more cooperation and communion in society.

He cautioned against presenting information to the public in such a way that it became homogenised, muffled creativity, oversimplified complex ideas or glossed over cultural and religious diversity.

“These are distortions that occur when the media industry becomes self-serving or solely profit-driven, losing the sense of accountability to the common good,” Pope Benedict said.

Writing on the theme The Media: A Network for Communication, Communion and Cooperation, he called on today's media “to be responsible – to be the protagonist of truth and promoter of the peace that ensues”.

Pope Benedict also spoke extensively about the need for the information and entertainment industries to show “edifying models”, not “debased or false expressions” of family life and human love.

He called on communicators to help “uphold and support marriage and family life” because the union of a man and a woman in marriage represented the foundation of all cultures and communities.

“Do not our hearts cry out, most especially, when our young people are subjected to debased or false expressions of love which ridicule the God-given dignity of every human person and undermine family interests?” the pope asked in his written message.

He suggested that communicators and the entertainment industry should work with parents and “assist in the difficult but sublimely satisfying vocation of bringing up children, through presenting edifying models of human life and love”.