ECUMENISM
“The secular media reveal great ignorance about and suspicion for religion. The religious institutions, for their part, show lack of trust in the media and do not seem able to understand the foundations of journalism and the challenges of modern information technology”, said the Portuguese journalist António Marujo in Lisbon in recent days, in his address to the John Templeton Prize on “Religion and Media – Incomprehension and Opportunities”. Marujo, a journalist on the daily of the Portuguese capital “Publico”, is the winner of the Templeton Prize for “European religious writer of the year 2005”, awarded to him by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in July. Marujo was speaking at the “Grémio Literário”, an historic club in Lisbon, in the presence among others of the Rev. Diamantino Lemos of the Anglican Church of Portugal and Luca Negro, CEC head of communication. “For many church leaders – he continued – the media are only a modern form of pulpit. This is one of the worst misunderstandings. As a journalist – concluded Marujo – I certainly have to write about religious institutions, but for me it is equally important to give space to unknown voices, to humble but significant experiences of faith”.
