For Comm. Day, the Pope Says "Blog"

Earlier today, the Holy See released B16's annual message for World Communications Day, this year's dedicated to the pastoral ministry of the priest online in this Year for Priests.

Though WCD is observed each Seventh Sunday of Easter -- now Ascension Sunday in much of the global church -- the message is traditionally released for 24 January, the feast of St Francis de Sales, patron of writers, journalists... and, indeed, the hearing impaired.

Here below, the pontiff's message in full:

On a related note, the Vatican additionally observed print media's patronal feast by kicking off a Twitter feed.

Behind the scenes here, meanwhile, folks frequently ask the meaning behind a word often seen on these pages: SVILUPPO.

And, well, here's your answer: in a literal sense, that's the Italian word for "development" -- so on a practical level, it's just a more streamlined way of noting corrections, additions, etc.

That said, it has a sentimental meaning, too -- it's an evocation of Lo Rapido Sviluppo: "The Rapid Development," a 2005 Apostolic Letter to those responsible for communications released apart from that year's WCD message.

That first Sviluppo called the church to "towards a sort of pastoral and cultural revision, so as to deal adequately with the times in which we live." And appropriately enough, it was the final major document released under the signature of the "pontifex massmediaticus," John Paul II.

So, hopefully that answers the question.

SVILUPPO: Has the Vatican Twitter feed been hijacked?

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