” “Forming journalists

“A theology of communication is essential”, declared Father René Aucourt, secretary of the national service of the apostolate of communication, in a comment to SirEurope at the end of the “Christian Days” held in France from 1st to 7th February and dedicated to the theme of communication. With a view to the new evangelization, continued Fr. Aucourt, we must form the protagonists of communication; we must give them access to a religious culture and to the necessary means to communicate it”. Father René Aucourt emphasized the fact that France has remained backwards on this level and it’s not rare, for example, for her to appeal to her Belgian partners when it’s a question of giving lectures on this issue. It’s true that since 1999, thanks to the creation of the national secretariat, some progress has been made. All the dioceses – Father Aucourt explains – “now have at least one diocesan delegate for communication and, ever more often, dioceses are establishing their own service for communication with a director and an executive council staffed by professionals”. The national secretary has also launched, for the first time, “the Christian days of communication”: until last year there was only one day set aside for this theme, namely the first Sunday in February, in continuity with the prayer Week for Christian Unity: “The project especially close to my heart – adds Fr. Aucourt – consists in permitting dioceses to communicate together. And the most urgent task is the formation of those responsible for communication and in particular journalists”. A time for reading. The 36th annual “Christian Days of Communication” were accompanied by three initiatives. First the publication of a document put out by COPIC (Standing Committee for Information and Communication) on the theme: “Finding the time to read again” (cf. SirEuropa no.3/2002), with the aim of promoting, in all Christians, an awareness of the importance of nourishing one’s own faith and becoming capable of bearing witness in a highly secularized world: “Have we the avidity to read that characterized our Fathers in the faith and that was found, earlier yet, in the lovers of literature, even agnostics or downright atheists, but still humanists?”, wonders the document signed by Msgr. Jean-Michel di Falco, auxiliary bishop of Paris and president of COPIC. And the document concludes: “What is needed, therefore, is to return to the heart of the act of reading. Like the act of writing, it is intrinsic to the secret construction of interior freedom”. Learning to communicate. The second initiative was the publication of a new edition of ‘ Paroisscom’, a very practical and down-to-earth manual on communication, first published by the national Service for the apostolate of communication in 1996. Enriched with further information, and closer to the pastoral realities on the ground, Paroisscom 2002 proposes a series of practical and easy-to-use instructions: forty-nine fact-files provide basic information on how to produce a poster, how to navigate on the Internet, how to produce a press release, a parish paper, an editorial plan, how to organize a round table. Six fact-files provide basic information on how to set up a reception centre, twelve on how to promote occasions for communication: “open doors” days, communication in crises, etc. The manual also reprints the main texts of the Church on communication, and provides a listing of useful addresses, a glossary of terms and a bibliography. The Internet site. The third initiative was the boosting of the secretariat’s website in four directions of pastoral attention and animation: communication, press, radio and Internet. What’s urgently needed now, in Fr. René Aucourt’s view, is to coordinate the innovations of the dioceses and create lasting links between them.