A time for partnership” “

Not only TV, but also the press, internet and radio are “very suitable media for communicating religious information in Europe, because they are based on the written word that facilitates reflection and listening, a typically Catholic theme”. The presence of the Church media in the various European countries was discussed in recent days by the bishops of the European Episcopal Commission for the media (CEEM) of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE), meeting in Rome for their annual meeting from 18 to 21 September. The six different language groups headed by the Commission’s members presented a report on the situation in their respective areas to coincide with the meeting. And while television was discussed in the CCEE seminar on 18 September (cf. SirEurope 62/2003 ), in the days that followed the European bishops also reflected on the role and value of the other media. A European network for better communication. “We want to make this network work more effectively – explained Msgr. Aldo Giordano, CCEE secretary – also in relation to the changes that are taking place in European society and information. Today there are no longer gross disparities between East and West, because the Churches of eastern Europe have also organised themselves and developed their own media. So new forms of partnership need to be found. We also need to focus on training in communication. Even if the Church will never be a media power, it’s important that she should have at her disposal modest but high-quality media”. The other projects described during the meeting include a series of courses on “institutional communication” to improve the public image of the Church in Spain and a “diocesan project” in Portugal aimed at the creation of specific pastoral bodies for social communication in all the country’s dioceses. In Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland, on the other hand,” a decline in interest, especially among the young” in Church-run media” was noted. Catholics, TV and the new Europe. An assessment of Catholic television services in Europe was made by Josè Maria Gil, technical secretary of the episcopal Commission for means of social communication of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. “The projects of Catholics in the field of television are one of the most important tasks for the Church – he told SirEurope – not only due to the importance of this means of cultural conformation in present and future Europe, but also due to the urgency expressed in various Church assemblies, including the special Synod for Europe”. The Church, in his view, while she “rightly claims the formal recognition of her contribution to the past and present” of our continent, “cannot now relinquish being present in the formation of the new Europe, with so decisive a medium as television”. To ensure that her contribution be made as effectively as possible, “it is essential – in his view – to combine our efforts, pool our resources and create forms of partnership, especially in the co-production of Catholic programmes”. This Catholic partnership in joint audiovisual projects may, in Gil’s view, “generate official aid by the European agencies that work for the integration and creation of a common space”. The Church in favour of the “public service”. But especially, emphasised Gil, “this new Church presence in the world of European television cannot make us forget the Church’s support – now more than ever necessary to redress the predominating profit-motive conception of communication – for the concept of ‘public service’ of the means of communication, especially at the state or regional level, thanks to which the presence of religious programmes in television broadcasting is guaranteed”. “The very concept of ‘public service’ – concluded Gil – is one of the most characteristic aspects of European television culture that we cannot afford to lose”.