Friday 19 September 2008

Catholics and the new communications media

During recent months, there have been three large international Catholic events. The International Eucharistic Congress took place in Quebec, Canada in June. This was followed by the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia in August. And, just last weekend, we saw the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Paris and Lourdes, France.

Something that all three of these events have in common is the way in which media coverage, and in particular internet coverage, was provided by Catholic apostolates. Whilst some of the organisations providing coverage are sponsored and/or established by the relevant diocese (I am thinking of ECDQ.tv, Eglise Catholique de Quebec, who provided coverage of the International Eucharistic Congress), I think they all represent initiatives of lay people in collaboration with the hierarchy of the Church. My view is that they represent the best of lay apostolate, making use of the professional expertise that is appropriate to the lay state and putting it at the service of the Church.

The three relevant organisations are ECDQ.tv, in Quebec, Canada. Video coverage from the Eucharistic Congress is still available on the site. Salt and Light TV, based in Montreal, are also a similar apostolic organisation which gave coverage to the Eucharistic Congress. The World Youth Day website provided streaming video coverage, which is still available. KTO television catholique provided complete coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to France. I think all of these organisations broadcast on cable and satellite, as well as having well developed internet sites.

As this photograph of the "equipe" at KTO television catholique in 2007 demonstrates, the size of the production teams does not appear to be large. There seems to be a real sense of undertaking this work as an apostolate on behalf of the Church, a sense of a "charism" being lived out, rather than of their being just a bureaucratic "media office".

One should perhaps add, as another example of a new media apostolate, the website of the Marian shrine at Lourdes. Lourdes Magazine, with its own website, is also an excellent media initiative.

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