Pierre Babin

Important Dates

• 1925 - Pierre Babin was born in Paray-le-Monial, France, 2/25
• 1942 - Joined Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
• 1949 - Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest
• 1955 - Professor at Catholic University of Lyon
• 1962 - Taught in Paris
• 1965 - Taught in Strasbourg
• 1971 - Founded and served as Director of CREC AVEX (Center for Research and Communication)
• 1976 - 1989 Served as Co-director of Audiovisual Research Department CNRS Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique), Lyon, France
• 1971 - 2000 Served as Director of Formation and Research at CREC AVEX
• 2001 - 2004 International Talks and Writing
• 2004 - 2008 Writing in Bangkok, Thailand
• 2008 - Opening of the Babin Centre of Communications, Bangkok, Thailand
• 2009 - Currently retired in an OMI Community House in Lyon, France

Awards:

• 1994- Johannes Hoffinger Award (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA)
• 1995 - NCCL Catechetical Leader Award
• 1995 - Daniel J. Kane Religious Communication Award, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, USA
• 2002 - Honorary Research Fellow, St. John's University, Bangkok, Thailand

Pierre Babin was born in 1925 in Paray-le-Monial, France. The religious context of the small community was influenced by a devotion to the Sacred Heart, born out of the religious experiences of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (Visitation Sister) and local Jesuit spirituality. Pilgrims and missionaries flocked to Paray-le-Monial. The petite village's atmosphere was charged with a profound sense of the sacred. This spiritual context influenced the Babin family's religious imagination and set the stage for Pierre's vocation.

During the Second World War, German soldiers were stationed in the village of 8,000 people. Their presence ignited caution, fear and trepidation among the people. Pierre belonged to a group of young French resisters who, as he would say, "engaged in dangerous activity and games against the German Army by sabotaging their huts and helping prisoners to escape or pass over the borders to freedom." His strong attraction to the poor called him to serve them when rations were low in the surrounding villages.

His adolescent years were turbulent. He found himself questioning and searching for an absolute ideal and trying to escape from an authoritarian background that seemed to hold him hostage from his real dream. He believed that his vocation was rooted in the ambivalent reaction he had to the world emerging around him. He found himself in a state of rebellion that combined a desire for perfection or a heroic idealism while at the same time combating all forms of oppression whether it came from politics, religion or education. At the age of 17, he escaped from the occupied zone of the Germans, headed toward a small town in southern France called La Blachére and entered the novitiate of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Babin believed that the OMIs offered him an opportunity to become a heroic missionary in the North Pole. He had no desire to teach. "If so," he once said, "I would have become a Jesuit whose presence was dominant in my home village." During his scholastic studies, he experienced a personal crisis of faith which became a turning point in his spiritual evolution. This experience later became the basis of future books: Pour une catéchése des jeunes d'aujourd'hui: itineraire pastorale and Les jeunes et la foi.

He discovered himself coming face to face with fundamental questions regarding the meaning and relationship of faith to life, liberty, religion and church. Under the guidance of his spiritual director, he surrendered himself to his call to bring a new perspective, or sense of life, to religion. He embarked on a new pathway that would define his contribution to a new approach toward catechesis even in a digital age.

His Oblate religious formation, theological studies (St. Foy les Lyon - Oblate College) and youth ministry experiences (Vico-Corsica) cultivated his interest in the relationship of theology, psychology and new methodologies for stimulating the religious imagination of young people.

During his scholastic studies, Babin became very sick and was sent to Corsica to rest. The pastoral landscape and people offered a healing presence for Babin. It was there (1943-1944) that he picked up a book about St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In a flash, his words struck home, "You will learn more in the woods and fields than in a book. Fields and woods will teach you many secretes that no person can ever reveal to you." Babin often said, "This was my experience. It supported me during the transition I was theologically embracing in my life and studies." This single insight ignited a new fire within him. He was ready to discover a new way of animating the minds and hearts of young people to discover God.

Babin perceived his Corsica days as a "paradisial experience" in a country with extraordinary beauty and close contact with the population. He expressed his experience as "the archetype of Jesus with his disciples along the mountains and Sea of Galilee." He said, "During those days of my scholasticate, the camp-mission experience gave me a new model of evangelization and the media. This does not mean that we had media (as such to use), but in Corsica I began to understand the basic elements of what constitutes the relationship of language and the media culture. Through sound, image, gesture, immersion in nature and reflection on village stories, I realized a new way for getting in touch with a deeper reality (mystery)."

Babin did not perceive himself as a specialist in theology, but only as a developer of a technique. Nevertheless, he was encouraged when some theologians told him that he had a deep sense of theology that went beyond any systematic approach. With this comfort, he set in motion dialogues with different theologians, even seeking them out to confirm or criticize his new way of thinking about communicating the Good News in a new media age.

Reflecting on the works of Karl Rahner, SJ, Babin said, "He was not one of my teachers, but his theology enhanced my thinking because it is deeply pastoral and rooted in experience." Babin's studies at the University of Lyon introduced him to famous theologians and entrepreneurial thinkers, such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who ignited Babin's investigations into the "all holy" in creation, preparing the ground for The Symbolic Way. Lyon was the center for creative theology in the 50s and 60s, and Babin delighted in immersing himself in flowing conversations.

In 1949, he was ordained and finished his theological studies. He was named chaplain at a Catholic high school in Lyon. He continued his involvement with summer camps which offered opportunities to share the idealism and hope of the young generation. While ministering to the young people, he developed a new Gospel sense of community and a deepening awareness of the power of Gospel symbols. He said, "I began to discover the symbolic way of faith, to realize that young people needed to experience the Kingdom of God." During this time in Lyon, he began a two-year study in psychology at the University of Lyon. He studied Jung and Freud, investigating their ideas in relationship with Christianity. He became acquainted with the progressive catechetical works of Joseph Colomb, a Sulpician. His preoccupation quickly focused on a new way to teach which emphasized "being full alive." The key was to completely rethink how to present the Good News to youth in a media age. Babin went on to teach catechesis at the Catholic University of Lyon (1955) and later at Strasbourg University (Switzerland).

As early as 1957, Pierre Babin was a pioneer in the catechetical movement. One of his lectures at the time, Catechesis for Adolescence, emphasized that evangelizing means transmitting a direct and personal message to the whole person, to the heart and not just to the intelligence. The catechist's language, as well as whole being, should be part of the message. This emphasis on heart, emotions and feelings (experience) was somewhat suspect by Church leaders in France, but Pierre continued lecturing and publishing books in the same vein: Crisis of Faith (1963) and Faith and the Adolescent (1964). "We must dare everything!" continued to be the mantra for his pioneering initiatives.

The National Director of Catechesis (Paris, France) was unenthusiastic about these books and Babin's way of thinking. Babin tried to rewrite them, but in Babin's own words, "It was catastrophic!" He resolutely believed that he (we) could not put our experiences, stories, symbols and poetic language, and even the testimony of Jung into theological statements. His approach simply did not fit into a theoretical approach to dogma. This experience confirmed for Babin that there were two ways of thinking: (1) a methodology of theologizing and (2) a new dynamic for communicating the faith with a Jungian approach.

In Strasbourg, Babin encountered Leon Barbey, a Swiss pedagogue, who deepened Babin's curiosity for linking human development with spirituality. Several of Babin's first publications were highly influenced by Barbey: Book on Friendship (1967) and Methods (1968). Options (1965) was perceived by Babin to be his systematic expression arising from the experiences of his first catechetical experiences with youth, his ministry on the Corsica catechetical campus, combined with ongoing encounters with great pedagogical and psychological masters. These books were eventually translated into a number of languages and used as texts in catechetical formation programs around the world.

Ecumenical Encounters

Taizé offered Babin a new perspective as he was contemplating a new methodology for spirituality and catechesis. Years before the Taizé Community entered the international scene, Babin connected with Brother Roger Schultz, founder of Taizé. Inspired by the Taizé ecumenical way of life and prayer, Babin integrated the Taizé experience within his personal spirituality and the CREC AVEX program. This was reflected in the arrangement of his liturgical space (small prayer chapel) and in the evening community prayer to which he invited guests from the neighborhood, visiting lecturers, students and friends. The ambience - icons, light, tone, smells, posture, music, chanting of psalms with a small community - reflected a merging of Taizé with Babin's spirituality.

An encounter with Pastor A. Whyer, then the director of the Protestant Office for Catechetical Research in Geneva (Switzerland), offered another awakening for Babin. Whyer said, "Your books on religious education have helped us enormously. But nowadays people speak a different language, the audiovisual language." Whyer's observation posed the question that preoccupied Babin for the rest of his life: "What affinity does the audiovisual language have with the Gospel?" His search for an answer led him to identify three stages of discovery concerning audiovisual media: (1) audiovisual methods are a powerful aid to instruction; (2) audiovisual materials are not simply "aids" but a language in themselves and (3) the audiovisual media bring with them a new all-encompassing culture.

As the years elapsed, Babin maintained links with various Protestant groups, particularly in Geneva. He yearned to animate a new approach to catechesis that did not begin fundamentally with dogma but with experiences of the Gospel. Reflecting upon those years, Babin said, "We worked hard, prayed and exchanged our expertise in art, music and audiovisual production. We discovered a common friendship that went beyond our divisions. What I learned was that there was a unity of mosaic emerging within us. I realized that the idea of a unity of mosaic is greater than the difference of each stone. The metaphor helped me to perceive that the global image of unity needs to emerge first in our imagining efforts."

Influence of Marshall McLuhan

Babin's research and praxis with audiovisuals of sprinkling a few slides, video cassettes and songs into existing forms of religious education was only a palliative that might even prevent us from seeing the real changes in contemporary culture and communication. It was for this reason that he was disposed for the most significant encounter with McLuhan, who would awaken him to a more radical paradigm shift. Babin said, "Originally, I had regarded media as external instruments. Little by little, my conventional understanding of media and audiovisual methods changed. The more I contemplated this new revelation, the more aware I became that people were audiovisually oriented, so that we could no longer speak to them as we had spoken in the past."

There were three characteristics of modern life in the younger generation that Babin felt the Church needed to realize: (1) the resurgence of the imagination; (2) the importance of affective relationships and values and (3) the dissolution of national and cultural frontiers. McLuhan had inspired him to re-examine the function of communication, including the communication of faith. For Babin, the new awakening "was an insistence that was sometimes difficult to bear." McLuhan managed to help him understand that technology, or more specifically the audiovisual medium of communication, is the key to understanding our contemporary culture and the evolution of a new human consciousness.

Like many of Babin's generation, his life was governed by the aphorism, "Ideas rule the world." McLuhan opened his mind to the fact that crucial factors in changing culture and human behavior are not ideas, philosophies and religions, but the technological innovations of the era, especially in communications. McLuhan further emphasized that the message is not the words but in the effect produced by the one who is speaking. Soon, modulation was perceived by Babin as being the essence of audiovisual language, just as words and their sequence are the essence of written language. Babin often referred to the modulation of Brother Roger's (Taizé) voice in prayer as an example. These vibrations, perceived by our senses, induce emotions, images and even ideas, but first and foremost, they are based on natural analogies and habitual effects on the mind.

Marshall McLuhan's concept of the "global village" connected with Babin's evolving unity in mosaic theme. Babin went to Canada, setting the course for numerous impressive conversations with McLuhan and bringing McLuhan's ideas into harmony with Babin's eventual

Symbolic Way Movement

In his book The New Era in Religious Communication, Babin explains how the encounter with Marshall McLuhan had changed both his philosophy and orientation of teaching. The edited transcript of Babin's dialogues with McLuhan over several summers have been published in Autre Homme, Autre Chrétien á l'age électronique. Babin says, "I met McLuhan several times when McLuhan was in his 'glorious prophet years' (1970-1980). McLuhan turned my former ideological structure of religious training upside down. Formerly, my life was governed by the aphorism that 'ideas rule the world.' McLuhan opened my mind to the fact that the crucial factor changing culture and human behavior were not just ideas but more fundamentally the technological innovations of the dawning of a new era. I began to see how technology had changed my town over many years. McLuhan's vision was to see the complex interaction of technology with all aspects of our social and cultural reality. At the heart of his thinking, of course, is communication technology - the medium that is the message."

The conversations with McLuhan escorted Babin to a new concept for communicating faith. The message is the whole complex of ministries and conditions that are required for an effect to be produced. It is the face, the gestures, tone and clothes of the religious educator. The content of the faith message is not primarily the ideas or the teaching, but rather the listeners themselves, insofar as they are affected by the medium. "In the communication of faith, the content is not first and foremost the teaching of Christ. Rather, it is those who are being taught, insofar as they are reached by Christ and his Church; again, insofar as they are affected by the medium."

Babin knew that McLuhan changed the meaning of words, and this made it difficult to understand McLuhan's message. McLuhan saw the world from a different perspective. However, the fact that the new technologies would change the world was evident. If one wanted to understand the world, one must change one's way of looking at it and the way one perceives how it is connected. It took many years for Babin to come to terms with the meaning of the medium is the message. Babin saw it as a "Copernican Revolution." This meant that the initial act of communicating faith was a comprehensive movement involving images, gestures, sounds, etc., that were much more important than the doctrine of faith.

Babin frequently surprised his audience with his reflections on Madonna (pop singer) and Michael Jackson (pop singer). He used "Thriller" over and over in his presentations, year after year, as a universal phenomenon of music and culture and Jackson's ability to reach people. If they (pop singers) could move huge audiences, why could we not find a way for the Gospel to do so?

Fundamental to Babin's teaching was the concept that ground is more important than figures. It is not what you say that is so important but "what you are: the tone of your voice, your gestures and behavior." As time evolved, Babin understood that audiovisual media in general was an extension and modification of the body. He wrote, "When we say, 'Christ's Body,' we only give a Christian name to the term of 'medium.' Evangelizing in the media age is embodying Christ. Through the media, through ourselves, we make Christ a medium."

Sharing contemplative insights in a talk entitled The Spirituality of Media People (unpublished) for a gathering of professional communicators, Babin examined the evolving new media age. He wrote, "Our ancestors used to plant crosses on the mountaintops. Nowadays we put huge radar (satellite) dishes up there. Is the radar (satellite) dish, a circular symbol of wholeness and instrument of communication, not related to the cross?" He goes on to say, "The communicator's first task is not to speak but to listen…to listen to the voice of 'my people.' Can the person who does not love this earth - its songs, its films, its publicity - can someone like this be a Christian media person? What Christ is witnessed to if the person is not sensitive to the voice of human hope that is expressed in today's magazines, in film clips, in pop music? What God is communicated by the person who is not stimulated by human struggle, the person who cannot weep over mindless poverty and contemporary catastrophes?"

His concluding observation to the media professionals was "Aware as I am of the enormous pressures that exist in the life of the Christian media person…I know that we carry our treasures 'in earthen vessels.' Nevertheless, I am convinced that our profession as Christian media people is rich in the highest of human and spiritual values. If few Christians come this way, it could be that few of them are aware of its holiness. I think that electronic technology and the professional life which shape our body can be paths of the greatest holiness and of evangelization in our times."

In 1999, addressing the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Babin said, "I believe that we must radically rethink our pastoral methods, in the same way as the revolution which occurred as a result of the discovery of print technology and culminated in the Council of Trent. We have been invited not to a superficial restructuring of methods, but rather to what has been termed a change in the priorities and paradigms of pastoral work. We must do with electronic media what Luther and Canisius did in their time with the printing press when they invented the catechism, seminaries, etc."

Later in Babin's evolutionary thought, the Internet became the determinant media that would reshape the world into a "global village." The concept of the "global village" enabling us to mobilize the hopes and imaginations of the people to recreate the world with the slogan, Unity in diversity, was deeply rooted within Babin.

The Symbolic Way

Babin's persistent intellectual curiosity, theological reflection and pastoral encounters with the evolving media age prepared the ground for The Symbolic Way. "If we want to express the Gospel today," Babin would say, "then we need to use symbolic language." Jesus used symbolic language, and it is the dominant language of the media culture. Symbolic language adds modulation to abstract words. "It is the royal way for communicating the invisible in our own age of sensory explosion." He believed that symbolic language is "tragically misunderstood."

Babin made a distinction between conceptual and symbolic language. Conceptual language is that form of language that provides an abstract, limited and fixed mental representation of reality. Examples are reading, writing, abstraction, precision, idea, explanation, linear sequencing, words, etc. Symbolic language leads not only the spirit, but also the heart; it moves the body. It is a language full of resonances and rhythms, stories and images, suggestions and connections which introduces us to different kinds of mental and emotional behavior.

In The New Era in Religious Communication, Babin wrote, "It is certainly not possible to separate neatly these two forms of language, which are so intermingled in everyday life. The two forms of language can be compared to two waves, each one carrying with it its own sand. As we have seen, printing resulted in the victory of conceptual over symbolic language in the church and liturgy, with the sacraments gradually losing their emotional force and resonances in the imagination. Instead of the baptismal font, we now have a few drops of water on the forehead, and many ceremonies have become complicated rites that cannot be explained without a great effort on the part of pastors or priests. The wave of conceptual language has carried with it commentaries, readings, the study of theology and catechetical instruction based on intellectual effort and examinations" (p. 152).

Babin alleged that the wave of audiovisual language returns us to appreciating the meaning and impact of the symbol. He saw every good audiovisual document as being symbolic due to the emotional impact of sounds and images. He would often say that it has a "beyond" - something more than the reality proclaims. It is not so much about what it says but the "effect" it produces on us. It unites and pulls together. The mystery of all that is caught is in the imagination. "It is a call to become closely associated with the mysteries that inhabit and orientate the universe. That is why symbolic language and symbols cannot be dominated like a reality defined in a book. It has to be followed" (p. 152).

A prophet not only in his own time but in ours, Babin appreciated the inevitable rapidly evolving media (digital) era and its impression on young people. He was intuitively reading the signs of the times and prophetically preparing us for what we are encountering in the 21st century. His message was clear and simple: What many young people are looking for in faith is not so much knowledge as healing and spiritual fulfillment. The special characteristic of the symbol, the image and sound is that it produces effects that are not so much normative and cerebral as emotional and even physical; therefore, they tend to spread from one body to another and from one person's feelings to those of another.

His international cultural experiences reflected what Babin attempted to communicate. For example, he observed the effect of what African percussion instruments, diverse Asian and Oceanic religious rituals and Latin American rhythm produced in the observer. He saw that rhythm is contagious and it spreads through the group "like a shock wave!" It not only arouses emotion, but also creates understanding and a sense of "being at one" (sharing). Symbolic language has impact!

The Symbolic Way experience, according to Babin, is fundamentally a complex and ambiguous whole of sounds, images, words and gestures, relationships, rhythms, scents and many other factors that brings about a physical condition and psychic emotion, both of which help the awakening of the religious archetypes deep within the person. There are eight Steps (or movements) and Key Words for The Symbolic Way Experience: (1) Leave - Choose a symbolic time and place. Face your fundamental problem or your essential deficiency; (2) Feel - Don't think, don't talk, no media - simply be present to the moment; (3) Follow the Symbol - Identify an object or emotion that speaks to you. Bring it back as a sign -souvenir - or write down your reflection; (4) Return to the group - community - to share your experience; (5) Alone - Return to a quiet place to enter more deeply into your experience - write poems, Haiku, drawings, etc.; (6) Return to the large group and identify key words that capture your symbolic experience; (7) Celebrate - Identify a setting to celebrate the Eucharist, bringing the experiences into harmony; (8) Remember - Create an audiovisual (digital) experience of key images, basic sounds and key words emerging from the emotions stirred within one during the journey. (See writings for specific detail of The Symbolic Way Experience.)

It was not Babin's desire to merely create another methodology for catechesis. He sought to "stir into flame," "to move the spirit," or, as Babin often said, "to awaken the soul." The shift from intellectual ascent (of the text - the catechism) to a living, experiential reality that "shook - like an earthquake" the entire being, influencing not only the individual but the community (through symbols, sacramental reality and animated sense of community) was the hopeful reality Babin perceived.

Entrance Onto the International Scene

In the late 50s, Babin was invited to give courses in Canada and Latin America. These were his first opportunities to discover what was happening outside of France. These experiences led to another conversion for him as he attentively observed and listened to these cultures. As time passed, he became critical of the French because, in his words, "They were not capable of feeling the Good News." Latin America especially brought this new sense of being to him. He said, "I learned that one must become like a child to enter a new culture. At the beginning, this was an unconscious experience, for truly listening to another culture is not a question of mind but of being. As a result, you are not the same." His French colleagues began asking, "Pierre, you are French?" Soon he found himself saying, "I am French but not French…I am more." When he read Pope John XXIII's words, "The entire world is my family," Babin said, "Yes, this is my idea!"

Babin traveled the world, giving lectures and training sessions, working with and dialoguing with individuals such as French theologian Marcel Legault, Cardinal Martini and many others. He was a sponge, eager to absorb the wisdom and experience of those he encountered in order to be challenged and enlightened.

Babin's research and methodology, known as Group International pour la Foi et la Technologie or Group International for Faith and Technology (GIFT), has been studied extensively among Christian media professionals. His publications continued to create new portals and adventures to share and broaden his ever-expanding thinking which lead to his keystone or international renown: The Symbolic Way. He travelled to Latin America (Columbia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru); Africa (Cameroon, Senegal, Egypt); Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) and Asia. In Asia, he was connected with the International Jesuit Center for Communications where he began producing audiovisual montages and videos with students. Later he became engaged with Kuangchi TV Production Center run by the Jesuits in Taipei, Taiwan, working closely with Fr. Raymond Parent, SJ.

For many years, he was connected with Sophia University (Japan) and worked closely with Sister Shoko Shirai, DSP, who directed a Media Training Center in Tokyo. Deeply moved by Shirai's unexpected illness, Babin visited her days before she died. She was an avid disciple and carried The Symbolic Way experience and methodology into the Japanese context. He was invited to the Graduate School of Mass Communications, Sogang University in Seoul, Korea, where he worked with Dr. Clotilde Lee in a program associated with the Catechetical Institute of the Diocese of Seoul.

As the years unfolded, Babin gave regular courses or workshops at St. Paul's University, Ottawa (Canada) and The University of Dayton (Ohio, USA). He was consistently invited to international conferences around the world as a keynote speaker, lecturer or workshop animator.

Creation of CREC AVEX: Center for Evangelization and Communication

CREC AVEX was established in 1971. It was born out of the ongoing critical reflections, dialogues, publications and best practices Babin observed around the world. Furthermore, it was a response to the request of the Second Vatican Council. Babin had a desire to open a center that would cultivate international religious communication leaders mixing faith with the audiovisual language and emerging new media culture. CREC (Centre rechercehe et communication) means Center for Research and Communication which designates the place, the house of studies. AVEX (Audio Visuel Expression de la Foi) means Audio Visual Expression of Faith. CREX AVEX offered a six-month ecumenical formation and training program for those assigned to communication ministry within their church. The comprehensive program involved theological, spiritual and technological formation.

CREC AVEX focused on six key areas in its educational and media endeavors: faith, audiovisuals (multimedia), mission, pastoral communications planning, ecumenism and intercultural appreciation. Bishops, priests and lay leaders from over 110 countries have been trained at the center. International communication experts and practitioners from around the world were engaged in the six-month program. Some of these experts were Father Henk Hoekstra (Netherlands), Father Raymond Parent, SJ (Taiwan), Ana Maria Oliver (Lyon), Sean Patrick Lovett (Vatican Radio), Father Pierre Belanger, SJ (Canada), Sister Angela Ann Zukowski, MHSH (USA), Guy Marchessault (Canada), Victor Sunderaj (India), Roberto Molhant (Belgium), Clotilde Lee (Korea). These international experts interacted in formal and informal gatherings to strengthen the communication skills of the students. Students were required to attend workshops and seminars, participate in The Symbolic Way and complete a comprehensive project reflecting the CREC experience. Over 1,300 students from 120 countries have been trained in CREC AVEX. Most of these have become church leaders, media center directors and outstanding catechetical leaders around the world.

CREC AVEX was reoriented in 2005 upon the retirement of Babin. A group of laymen picked up on CREC and re-envisioned it by gathering communication experts offering communication technical formation for seminary formation programs primarily focused in Africa.

Additional International Involvements

Babin was active in OCIC, the International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisual. In 2001, OCIC merged with UNDA (International Catholic Association for Radio and Television) and became known as SIGNIS. From 2001 to 2005, Babin participated in the SIGNIS World Congresses.

In September 2008, the Babin Centre of Communications was inaugurated at St. John's University, Bangkok, Thailand. Its main mission is to offer a research and training program based on Fr. Babin's intellectual legacy for the mission of the universal Church.

Babin and His Vision Today

Father Pierre Babin's spiritual life was a priority for him. He drew from the deep well of a personal communion with God that energized a prophetic discourse in his life. There were many challenges of misunderstanding, ambiguity and conflicts from opposing or differing church perspectives, but he remained faithful to "We must dare everything!" in the spirit of OMI's founder and his own vocation.

Babin's small residence chapel was the location where anyone who visited or stayed with Babin could find him in either the early morning or evening hours. He invited guests to celebrate the daily Eucharist and join in the Liturgy of the Hours. There was a special aura and ambience of spiritual energy that embraced all who joined in the spiritual exercises. Babin believed that all who gathered in CREC were about God's work; thus, prayer was essential for one's communication ministry. Babin modeled being grounded in a profound communion with God. He called all his students and colleagues to communion with God.

Fundamentally, there was a spiritual grounding that spurred Babin to the call for a "spiritual awakening" in the media age. In speaking to the Canadian bishops, he said,

I am also convinced we should no longer prioritize catechetical teaching. Rather, spiritual awakening should be our priority from now on. In all the turmoil of information and emotion, only faith built on the awakening of the inner self (the spiritual) will remain strong. A faith based solely on catechetical teaching will waver.

The church is no longer the central building of the village. Office towers and large hotels have long ago taken its place. We must ask ourselves why children would come to church to follow the teachings of Christ. How would it be possible for faith after childhood to remain unaffected by so many influences and so much agitation? One cannot be solid in the faith unless it corresponds to a personal interior awakening. The key to religious communication is relating the language of the Gospel to the progressive awakening of one's inner self.

That is why there is need for pastoral initiatives that focus on a spiritual awakening in keeping with each generation as well as on the spiritual life and Christian experiences. Taizé is a good example of this way of teaching where music, prayer, liturgical splendor, community life and witness have replaced formal teaching (at least for the time being).

In The Gospel in Cyberspace: Nurturing Faith in the Internet Age, Babin commenced a new journey to explore the assessment of the Internet and social networking for evangelization and catechesis. He became more conscious that a new way of being human was swiftly emerging. It appeared more revolutionary than anything he perceived from the past. He felt it was propelling civilization into a "new way of both being human and Christian." It was more universal, oriented toward dialogue, sparking new opportunities and experiences for awakening a Gospel experience in the 21st century.

Upon Babin's retirement, he journeyed to Bangkok, Thailand, for contemplative time to compose his reflections on Aging and the Spiritual Life. In 2008, he returned to Lyon, France, to live with his Oblate Community where he continues today (2010).

Addendum: Father Pierre Babin, OMI, passed away in Lyon on May 9, 2012, at the age of 87.

Conclusion

Father Pierre Babin is a profound witness that age is never a barrier to being avant-garde and a contemporary prophet.

As a man of faith, he was driven by a concern to communicate the message - the whole message of the Good News - to adolescents who are far more impressed by sights and sounds than by words. He embraced an adaptive stance to the changing media times with prophetic vision. He knew we have to break out of circles that confine our vision. It is impossible to enter into the digital world without breaking out of the print-oriented universe. One of Babin's mantras has been "It is impossible to have a real intercultural communication in the electronic age without leaving 'your country and your kindred and your father's house'" (Gen 12:1). Becoming a full person in the electronic age is not playing with the emerging new digital tools but being born to new depths of humanity for which our previous education has not prepared us. By 1975, he was one of the most acknowledged authorities in the Church on audiovisual catechetics. Still, early in the 21st century and in his early 80s, he continued to query, explore and imagine the influence of social networking for communicating faith in a digital age.

How did Babin perceive his particular contribution to the field of catechesis? In an interview, he responded, "Once a mentor of mine said, 'Okay, Pierre, so you have projects in life, but you must follow the inner voice within yourself.' So I tried to listen to this inner voice always and not be too preoccupied with many projects or my future. It is important always to be ready to follow a mystery. By listening to God day by day, in accordance with the grace of each period of history and each culture, one can catch something of God's voice and reflect something of His presence. I want to trust my experience of mystery, to be open to its revelation and to reflect it back into the lives of the people I encounter each day." Babin continued to be faithful to this vision throughout his life.

Like Pope John XXIII, Babin opened windows; he also provided catechists the world over with a new vision, new approaches and a new theology of life and work in leading people to God.

Assessment of Others of Babin's Contributions to Christian Education