"The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message"
About this Quote
The phrase "communications media" does heavy lifting. It signals a Church learning to treat television, radio, and mass culture not merely as threats or distractions but as contested territory where meaning is made. John Paul II's pontificate was defined by images as much as encyclicals: the charismatic pilgrim pope, the carefully staged crowds, the ability to turn a visit into an event. This line reads like the theological rationale for that instinct.
"Full impact of the Gospel message" is the subtextual tell. It's not neutral information transfer; it's persuasion, encounter, a desired affective force. The aim isn't to simplify doctrine to fit the medium, but to harness the medium so doctrine can hit with undiluted intensity. There's tension embedded here: the Gospel as countercultural truth, and the Church borrowing the tools of mass culture to broadcast it. John Paul II is betting that technique need not corrupt content, even as he acknowledges that, in modern life, the medium increasingly determines what feels real.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
II, Pope John Paul. (2026, January 18). The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-question-confronting-the-church-today-is-not-9504/
Chicago Style
II, Pope John Paul. "The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-question-confronting-the-church-today-is-not-9504/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-question-confronting-the-church-today-is-not-9504/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.



