28 April" "
“I know what it means to be a young journalist, because I was one myself. At the age of fourteen I began with radio and then with the diocesan weekly: years ago, in Philadelphia…. so many years ago!”: with these memories of his early days Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, welcomed the 11 young European journalists on a visit they made to the Pontifical Council. “Yours is a very fine profession – he continued – because you have the possibility to tell people the facts of what’s happening. Never forget always to tell the truth, even though at times it may be difficult”. Foley then described the work of the Pontifical Council for communication and the reflection it has conducted on the importance of social communications since Vatican Council II’s decree Inter Mirifica. Various follow-up meetings with fellow-journalists and institutions of the Catholic world involved in communication were arranged for the group of young journalists invited to Rome to follow the Symposium of European bishops which ended on 28 April. Before the meeting at the Pontifical Council for social communications, they had the opportunity to visit the Holy See’s Press Room. The young journalists, representing various Catholic weeklies in various European countries or employed in the communications sector of their respective episcopal conferences, were also able to meet their Italian colleagues at the SIR Agency and at the Sat 2000 satellite television channel.
