On the occasion of World Television Day, which is celebrated on November 21 of each year, we remember the first televised message from a Pope.
World Television Day, driven by the UN since 1996, seeks to promote the responsible use of television as one of the main channels for disseminating public information.
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On April 17, 1949, 75 years ago, Pius XII was the first Pontiff to direct a televised messagewhich consisted of an Easter greeting in French.
“This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice in joy! Whatever the memories of past pains, present sufferings, threats to the future, each year the festival of Easter comes to remind those who mourn, those who tremble, that Christ, dead and buried, has risen triumphantly. , and for this reason on this day Christians exchange, with faith and hope, their Easter greetings and congratulations,” said Pius XII at the beginning of his message.
“What satisfaction for our paternal heart to be able to exchange them with you, dear sons and daughters of the entire earth, in the intimacy of a communication, which before had not been given to us to enjoy!”, he continued.
Pius XII highlighted the advance of technology and how some years before, in 1931, it was Pius XI who spoke on the radio for the first timewhich allowed “not only the word to be read, coldly recorded on the pages of the newspapers, but from now on the voice of the Father to reach each of his children.”
Returning to his reflection on television, Pope Pius
“The world has been told that religion is in decline and, with the help of this new wonder, the world will see the great triumphs of the Eucharist and Mary,” the Holy Father assured.
Pope Pius
“May our voice, beloved sons and daughters, reach your ears once again, may at the same time, for the first time, our gaze and yours meet in the exchange of paternal and filial affection, while, in this Easter solemnity, We send each one our best wishes for holy joy,” he concluded.
In April 2019, the Pope Francis recalled the message of Pius XII. “I am pleased to remember that seventy years ago, precisely on Easter 1949, a Pope spoke for the first time on television,” he indicated.
“The venerable Pius XII addressed French television highlighting how the views of the Successor of Peter and the faithful could also meet through a new means of communication,” he continued.
“This festival offers me the opportunity to encourage Christian communities to use all the instruments that technology makes available to announce the good news of the risen Christ, to communicate, not just to contact each other,” he said.
This article originally appeared on November 21, 2021. It has been updated for its new publication.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.