A hundred canonical representatives of Spanish cathedrals met in Toledo in recent days to discuss how to evangelise the media. “We don’t see ourselves reflected in the image of the Church that appears in the media”, said Francisco Serrano Oceja, editor of the Church magazine Alfa y Omega , pointing out that “the relationship between Church and media is now a problem of the relationship between the Church and its mediators. A journalist consists of his sources”. According to Serrano Oceja, professor at the San Pablo-Ceu University of Madrid, the task of the Church is to transform itself into a “habitual source of information”. In his view, “the complaints in the media about the Church regard its lack of transparency in providing information on church issues” and a “failure to accept criticism of the institution and its members”. Serrano also argued that there is a “lack of expertise and professionalism in treating religious issues” and a “tendency to simplify and use political models in everything and for everything”. But above all there is a “propensity to glorify the marginal, the picturesque, the esoteric and the heterodox aspect” in news stories about the Church. As far as the media are concerned, he complained of their “arrogance”: they “have difficulty in accepting corrections”. According to Serrano, “information must become a norm of the Church” and secrets should become “an exception”.
