'The best communicator is a life of witness to the Gospel, not technology,' says Thai Cardinal

Cardinal Francis Xavier Kriengsak of Thailand stated, "A life of witness to the Gospel is the most effective form of communication; it is not technology-driven or mediated."

“The Church, however, must learn, understand, and take advantage of the means of communication” for “pastoral care, New Evangelization, transmission of the faith, and spiritual development,” the cardinal said.

This sums up the message of the Archbishop of Bangkok to participants of the ongoing 28th annual Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC-OSC) Office of Social Communication Bishops’ Meet.

Presiding over Mass on November 23, Cardinal Kriengsak also said that love “is the starting point, the meeting point, and the ongoing of the Church’s mission."

“When we love the other person as ourselves, we will have accomplished our mission.”

“We also have to see and love Christ in every neighbor. That is authentic love,” the Cardinal said.

Authentic love is mutual love, which means “loving others as we love ourselves. This should be taken literally.”

This truth should “impel Christians to love friends but also enemies, doing good to them and praying for them,” the prelate concluded.

Cardinal Kriengsak heads the Archdiocese of Bangkok, with more than 388,400 Catholic Christians in 2019. That figure represents 0.58 percent of the 69 million residents of the archdiocese at that time.

Concelebrating today’s Mass was Bishop Leandro Maria Alves from Baucau Diocese in Timor-Leste and Bishop Timothy Yu Gyoung-chun from Seoul, South Korea.

The annual FABC-OSC Bishops’ Meet is the closed-door meeting of bishops in charge of social communication and their secretaries in member conferences and associate members of FABC, the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

FABC-Office of Social Communication organizes the yearly event.