The conference, sponsored by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the Australian Catholic Media Council and the Australasian Catholic Press Association, aims to address the evolving challenges and opportunities in sharing the Gospel in today's world.

Gaining valuable insights into modern missionary communication, the Congress is pitched as an excellent opportunity for networking, skill building and learning.

Anyone communicating God's message of hope, faith and love across Catholic media and communications channels is welcome to attend the Congress.

Although a complete schedule is not yet available, organisers have published information about some of the opportunities the Congress will offer.

These include presentations and workshops on digital evangelisation, artificial intelligence, social media, videography, photography, advertising, book publishing, web design, strategic communications and spiritual conversation.

Sister Rose Pacatte, the congress keynote speaker, is a Daughters of St Paul member and the founding Director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles.

Pacatte is an award-winning film journalist and author or co-author of 15 titles on film, film and scripture, and on media literacy education. She has a Master of Education degree in media studies from the University of London.

Pacatte says she will speak about "Breaking the Silence: The Power and Pitfalls of Catholic Communication in the Digital Landscape".

In this, she will explore the transformative potential and challenges of Catholic communications in the digital era, She will draw on insights from Catholic social teaching and from Pope Francis..

She will also discuss strategies for fostering authentic dialogue, navigating online pitfalls and building bridges in the digital landscape.

Later, during the Congress, Pacatte will run a workshop called "Catholic Creatives Unleashed: Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Renaissance" where she will examine the intersection of Catholic creativity and digital communication.

This will involve exploring the role of art and vocation, and discerning practical strategies for Catholic communicators, journalists and creatives in the continually developing digital world.

The Congress sessions will be held at the Miller Hotel in North Sydney. An official dinner will be staged at the Kirribilli Club and addressed by Peter Greste, a former foreign correspondent and journalism educator.

Greste worked for Reuters, CNN, the BBC and Al Jazeera predominantly in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

Source

• Media Congress
• Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
• Wikipedia
• NCR

All people yearn for truth and justice, speakers at a panel discussion in Rome said last week.

The discussion followed the presentation of a new book "Transparency and Secrecy in the Catholic Church" written by two of the panelists, Fr Jordi Pujol Solerand and Fr Rolando Montes de Oca. The third panelist was Archbishop Charles Scicluna, from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Information and secrecy are both forms of power that can be abused, the authors say. There is a growing desire for greater transparency in Church communications to end "absurd and useless secrets," while protecting needed privacy, confidentiality and the sacred sacrament of confession.

Safeguarding reforms, laws and procedures are part of a larger call for conversion for the entire church.

Pope Francis's most recent reforms concerning safeguarding and church leaders' greater accountability show the connection between canon law and communication.

Pujol pointed out the two types of tribunal to understand and handle appropriately: courts of justice, which demand facts and evidence to promote justice; and the court of public opinion, which depends on facts. It is coloured and driven by emotions and immediate perceptions.

It can be frustrating to see facts ignored or distorted in the court of public opinion, but "you need to monitor people's perceptions" and address them in a proactive, constructive way, he says.

Montes pointed out that media move and respond quickly to events. Those working in Church communications must also ensure timeliness is guided by "respect for human dignity, the common good and prudence."

Catholic communicators can help reporters in the secular media understand this and the need to use terminology correctly and truthfully, Pujol says.

There is a long history of church teaching to guide communications, which is an integral part of the church's identity as an institution dedicated to the truth and being trustworthy.

"We all agree on the principles: we want a church that is open, that listens, that does not see victims as a threat or a problem, that promotes the laity and women and fosters co-responsibility."

To be credible and relevant today the Church has to be itself, to continue to awaken in others the amazement, the astonishment of God and humanity.

The panel agreed that historic abuse allegation reports must be done by top experts in a professional, honest, humble and impartial manner to understand what really happened.

The aim is not to "inflict self-harm," but to learn from the past and grow in a desire to do things better, Scicluna says.

Only journeying together in a truly synodal way can the truth be safeguarded and justice promoted, in a process of gathering information, listening and dialogue in the "Gospel-way" with compassion, tenderness and closeness.

Source

• Crux Now

She has been arguably the most visible and recognisable "face" of the Catholic Church in New Zealand.

Recently NZ Catholic interviewed Dame Lyndsay Freer about her career in Catholic communications.

Dame Lyndsay worked for Auckland diocese from 1985 to 1997 and was National Director of Catholic Communications for the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference from 1998 to 2008.

From 2009 until the present, she has worked as media and communications spokesperson for Auckland diocese and as media consultant for the Marist Fathers (Society of Mary) — both part time roles.

Dame Lyndsay has also had a significant involvement with the Catholic press in a governance role.

She chaired the board of Zealandia for several years and is today on the NZ Catholic board.

Her work for the Church was recognised with her being made a papal dame in 1995.

Source

• nzcatholic.org.nz

The appointment, which has surprised some, was foreshadowed last year by US Bishops' President, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, when he commented that "in the public square... the days of fat, balding Irish bishops are over".

Daniels, a former Sarah Palin advisor is a lawyer who worked as counsel for the Thomas More Law Center handling religious freedom issues, specialises in conscience-rights issues.

She is also a director of Catholic Voices USA, a group formed to improve the visibility of faithful Catholics in the mass media.

A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School, Daniels and her husband have six school-age children.

Daniels' appointment brings a new dynamic to the US Bishops' public activities.

Cardinal Dolan last year said "the best thing we ever did" was hiring an "attractive, articulate, intelligent" laywoman to make the church's case on abortion, adding, "In the public square, I hate to tell you - the days of fat, balding Irish bishops are over."

Daniels' position as spokeswoman for the president of the US Catholic Bishops Conference does not replace that held by Sr Mary Ann Walsh, who continues to head the public-relations office for the Conference.

Cardinal Dolan's position as president of the USCCB ends in November of this year.

Sources

• CNA
• RNS
• Catholic Sentinel
• Image: RNS
  

Long before the advent of television, St Thomas Aquinas said, "faith comes from hearing", and the Catholic Church in New Zealand, once again, at least for a limited time, had a face and a voice.

Around about five years ago the Catholic Church in New Zealand opted for a new model of communications, and rather than the face and voice of one spokesperson, it looked to spread the load and bring more spokespeople to the fore.

At the time, spreading the load, new faces, new voices, different faces, different voices, different ways of seeing the Church through the media, sounded like quite a good plan.

It probably still is, but I'm beginning to wonder if it is too adventurous a plan for a small country, because in the five years or so since Catholic Communications closed the Church seems to have become faceless and voiceless.

Yes, there have been numerous media releases, Tweets and Facebook posts. There's even been an occasional media comment by a bishop or Church spokesperson, but they seem to have mainly fallen on deaf ears.

Media relations is a special skill

I think it's generally true that most organisations prefer the media to tell 'their' version of the truth. The Church, which prides itself on truth, is no exception.

Church truth, its belief and practice, is often somewhat nuanced as evidenced by Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post who reported recently on Pope Benedict's last public mass.

Describing Benedict's movements, Failoa wrote in the Washington Post: "He walked with a gilded cane in the shape of a cross" as people cheered "Long live the Pope!"

The "gilded cane in the shape of a cross" was actually a crozier, the shepherd's staff that symbolizes a bishop's role as the leader of his flock.

Sometimes it seems the media just doesn't 'get' the nuance of the Church.

The Church may not have a monopoly on the media not understanding its stories and events, but living in a post-Christian focussed society, it's kind of understandable the media doesn't have religious experts, understanding for example, Church theology, philosophy, history and liturgy.

The former Cardinal, Jorge Bergoglio, was often described as a shy man with an aversion to journalists, but on the day of his inauguration as Pope, Francis acknowledged the work of the media representatives, greeting them as "My dear friends".

His comments were greeted with cheers and several reporters shouted "Viva!".

Pope Francis clearly understands the importance of a relationship with the media, but it is likely to be rare that he meets with them.

As well as using media statements and social media to engage with society, the media also want a face, a person to relate to and with whom they can build a relationship and trust.

Pope Francis will generally use a Vatican spokesman to tell the Church's story and to keep the relationship alive.

For many years the Catholic Church in New Zealand fostered relationships with the New Zealand media. However by remodelling its communications, it seems to me we may have lost some impetus, lost our edge, lost our important perspective in a post-modern society.

For example I find it interesting that the New Zealand media is now preferring former TV reporter and now Anglican priest and communications spokesman Jayson Rhodes or a myriad of faceless university academics to talk about the church and matters of interest to the church and society.

It's perhaps timely to again recall Thomas Aquinas', "faith comes from hearing", and ask whose faith, and what is it that people are hearing?

I guess it's now no secret that I'm applauding the personal initiative of Auckland Bishop, Patrick Dunn, to send Lyndsay Freer to Rome to cover the Papal conclave and election of Pope Francis.

My reading of the situation is it seemed that after Dame Lyndsay arrived in Rome the New Zealand media seemed better informed, that she seemed to ease their way though something generally quite foreign to them, and the people of New Zealand and the Church both benefitted from her skill.

In today's world, the Church is regarded as somewhat counter-cultural, and as such the cultural void brings with it a great opportunity.

There is something unique about how the Church relates to the media as distinct from that of PR spokespeople from politics and the public sector generally.

Church media spokespeople are distinct from 'public relations' spokespeople in politics and business. As a result, there are a number of factors the media and New Zealanders expect from Church media spokespeople, that I think makes this specialist role worthy of further re-consideration:

• to be immediately available
• to be well educated with respect to catholic theology, history, liturgy and practice
• to be informed and if necessary to be able to arrange to get the right person to speak at short notice
• to be able to speak to New Zealand society in a way appropriate to the medium
• to have a warm and personal manner
• to have a sense of humour
• to be relaxed under pressure
• to engage in conversational style
• to be able to think on their feet while fronting the nation's media
• to be across development in new media and apply them appropriately to the Church's message
• and ultimately, to be credible.

When I look back at this list of skills and abilities that a professional Church media spokesperson needs, and match them against the opportunities to effectively outreach into to the wider New Zealand society through the media, I can only conclude this is indeed a specialist task requiring a full time media office for the Catholic Church in New Zealand.

- John Murphy is a Marist priest working in digital media at the Marist Internet Ministry, New Zealand.