communication" "
The annual meeting of the European Episcopal Commission for the Media (EECM) will be held in Rome from 10 to 12 March. The Commission brings together the bishops responsible for the media within the individual Bishops’ Conferences of Europe. It is currently headed by the retired auxiliary bishop of Chur (Switzerland), Monsignor Peter Henrici. In view of the forthcoming meeting, Msgr. Henrici has invited reflection on the message that the EECM addressed to its “fellow bishops of Europe” at the end of the Commission’s plenary assembly and the annual meeting of press officers and spokespersons of the 34 Bishops’ Conferences of the continent, the latter dedicated to youth, both meetings held at Warsaw in September 2005. “Youth expect us not to have fear of the media: let us go where we are not expected, let us enter the arena when the Church is called to intervene in the debates of society and encourage all those that do so. A Church that is absent or excessively complacent will be respected neither by the media nor by the young”. That is the appeal contained in the document, which, as the EECM president underlines, “encourages us to work to meet the young through the media, and to promote sound professional training” for future Catholic communication personnel. We need says the message issued in Warsaw to “involve the young in the Church’s pastoral action” and “in the ecumenical juries of festivals”, incorporate social communications in the pastoral ministry of the Church, promote new actions, such as the sending of text messages (SMS) to organize meetings” or “create a multilingual website”. A review of the work of the regional groups will be on the order of the day at the meeting in March.
