Inter Mirifica after 50 Years: Origin, Directions, Challenges

Verbum SVD 54:4 (2013)

Abstract

Already during the preparation for the Second Vatican Council a commission on “modern means for the apostolate” was created (November 1959!). The final Communications Commission produced a document with 114 paragraphs, which was discussed in the first session of the Council and approved in the plenary on November 27, 1962, with 2.138 ‘Yes’ votes out of a total of 2.160. The assembly stated that communication is a proper and important subject for a council. It was proposed, however, that the text should be shortened to the essentials for pastoral ministry and another, more professional document published later, which was done in 1971 with the Pastoral Instruction Communio et Progressio. The shortened and revised version of Inter Mirifica was approved, in spite of some protests about the minimalistic approach and lack of sufficient theology of this version, and then published together with the liturgy document on December 4, 1963. Because Inter Mirifica was one of the first two documents of the Council it could not benefit from later considerations and stayed somewhat at the fringes of the conciliar process. Considering the situation today the document presents some special challenges like developing the concept of Social Communication it introduced to its full meaning; working on a proper Communication Theology (not Theology of Communication!); developing a proper communication disposition (instead of only skills!); developing a proper spirituality-based communication approach which integrates all activities; going from “media” to “means” and thus respond also to the modern challenges of Internet and social networks.

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