So that everyone may listen

As part of its survey on Catholic news agencies in European countries SIR Europe met Marcin Przeciszewski, director of Polish news agency KAI. In the previous issues SIR Europe interviewed the director of Austrian news agency Kathpress, KNA (Germany), and of Cathobel (Belgium) (click here).What is the contribution of KAI news agency to the life of the Church and to Polish media today?  “Since our agency was set up in 1993 we have become the second largest press agency in Poland and the largest Catholic news agency in Central and Eastern Europe. The peculiarity of this agency is that its readership is both Catholic and lay media, including public and private TV and radio networks. In Poland the media has gotten used to KAI’s presence and the agency has thus become a natural and indispensable player in the media realm. For the Church the agency is one of the most important tools also for evangelization”.As regards role of a religious news agency what is the challenge of the new technologies? “We should be present on the media and therefore the new media for us are as important as traditional media. There are a large number of Catholic media platforms with many followers (Deon, Opoka, Wiara…). All informative contents of these new Catholic media stem from our agency. Now we are also on Facebook and Twitter, while the blogs are coordinated at individual level, not by the agency as a whole. We have to see how it all develops. We’re just at the beginning and it’s hard to have a complete picture of how it may be in the near future”. What can Catholic media do for the new evangelization? “I think the new evangelisation is possible only with a serious commitment on the part of Catholic media. The new evangelization is a process directed at individuals, peoples and environments that were once Christianized but have strayed from faith and need a second evangelization. This is also true for Poland, despite being a Catholic country, because there are groups of people who were raised in the Christian tradition but have no longer direct contacts with the Church. Reaching out to these people in a traditional way, such as catechesis in parishes, is impossible. Thus the new evangelization is not possible without the media. This applies in particular to large urban centres. It is therefore important that the Catholic media modify the way they communicate, to arouse the interest not only of believers but also of those who seek faith. If the Church fails to process communication mechanisms with the media that are outside the Catholic world, where the Christian theme is still present, the new evangelization will not be successful. The pontificate of Pope Francis is a great opportunity: his way of speaking and of presenting problems, are acknowledged by the media. We should carry out a very serious reflection on how to carry out the new evangelization through the media”. In which way can Churches contribute to participation in the life and the building of Europe? “Perhaps the voice of the Church in European issues over the past years has been too weak when it came to questions regarding the form or the future structure of Europe. In some ways it is necessary to return to the great post-synod exhortation of John Paul II, Ecclesia in Europe, the most mature document on the presence of the Church in creating or inspiring the European building. We must ensure that the voice of the Church is present, not only as it happens today at national level, as relates to social, ecologic, moral or ethical issues, but also as relates to Europe. Indeed, the common voice of the Churches is critical to a larger echo. It is all the more important that the Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran Churches speak with a single voice, as was the case with the letter of the Polish Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church on the common witness of the Churches in Europe and the defense of fundamental values, rooted in Christian tradition and constitutive for Europe”. In what way could Catholic news agencies cooperate more efficiently for the future of Europe? “There are two main aspects that should be considered: to acknowledge the need for cooperation and for mutual support in the media realm. This includes a cooperative platform, a promoting committee and a non-commercial approach on the part of news agencies. Some agencies cooperate with others, but on condition of handsome returns. There should be a less profit-oriented approach. The missionary dimension must be fully acknowledged”.