In the run up to the World Day of Social Communications (8 May) an appeal to “generously support” the Catholic media, in particular the new project of the “Catholic Communication Network” (CCN), the office that coordinates the social communications of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has been made by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster. In a letter sent to all parish priests, the Cardinal talks about the need “to engage more actively with both the specialist Catholic and secular media”. His appeal coincides with the creation of CCN, which “plans to work more closely with dioceses, agencies of the Church and the Conference of Bishops to promote the Church’s teachings and messages”. In his letter, Cardinal Murphy O’Connor writes: “The Catholic Church has the duty of public witness to our faith and if we are to proclaim the good news of the Gospel, we need to use all the good means at our disposal and to be coherent, modern and professional about it”. Meanwhile, in view of the British general elections on 5 May, the letter issued last month, in which the bishops urge Catholics to vote, recalling some particular issues important for the social doctrine of the Church, such as the family, life, justice, the common good, is more than ever relevant.
