LET NOT THE VOICE BE SILENCED
Claret was aware that a sermon ends up evaporated, though it creates impact in many who hear it; on the contrary, a book remains for a long time, is always within reach of the user. From the beginning of his apostolic activity, he was concerned about his preachings to the people in written texts (in pamphlets, booklets and books). Very soon he drafted the instructions he was giving in popular missions or spiritual exercises; his well known little pamphlets are on “advises to……” (Youngsters, children, parents, priests….). And to accompany prayer, there came immediately the famous devotional “The Straight Path” (Camino Recto).
But he didn´t stop there. Reflecting on spreading his religious thought to a larger audience, he founded with two other priests who had the same concern, “The Religious Publishing House” (1848), editorial and distributor of formative and less expensive works. On the other side, he was also aware of the evil that the press can do. Just as truth and beauty, lies and manipulation are also on paper and they remain in the libraries and newspaper shops. More than fighting against the “bad books”, Claret was concerned in writing and spreading that which can help to grow as human beings and believers. He believes that the evil is overcome mainly by the power of good.
Today we are not living so much from the press (as in the 19th century) or from radios and television (as in the 20th century), but the impact of the modern information and communication technologies, like the internet, social networks, digital platforms, etc. These technologies constitute – as John Paul II pointed out “The new areopagus” to spread the Gospel. The ideas that characterize the Claretian use of the social communication medias are valid for today: essential contents, simple and imaginative style, brief, positive tone and hope giving.
