Jubilees on the Press and the Radio (1925–1950)
摘要
This essay analyzes the way in which the jubilees celebrated by the Church during the pontificates of Pius XI (1922–1939) and Pius XII (1939–1958) were represented by the media and how the Holy See was able to use them to project the grandeur of these mass events beyond Rome. During his pontificate Pius XI convened three jubilees. The 1925 jubilee found wide coverage in the Catholic and in the non-denominational press. The organizing committee published bulletins, circulars, and posters. The jubilee served to awaken religious activity but it was also an affirmation of the Church’s power, which acquired a planetary dimension. In 1929 Pius XI announced the extraordinary jubilee to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination. He intended to solemnize the settlement of the Roman Question with the Lateran Pacts. In 1931 Vatican Radio was inaugurated so the pope could rely on a new modern tool to disseminate his messages. In 1933 the Jubilee of the Redemption was celebrated to commemorate Jesus’ death on Golgotha. The press and the radio provided the exaltation of the universality of the Church and the theological-political project of the Christian reconquest of society. On the eve of the opening of the Holy Door on December 24, 1949, Pius XII announced to the world in a radio message the purposes of the Holy Year 1950. The “new Christianity” to which he aspired also passed through this great event, which had in the radio one of the instruments of propagation.