COMMUNICATION
Switzerland: an ecumenical radio-TV centre A real Sonderfall: a unique case. Bernard Litzler thus described the "uncomparable religious coverage" offered by Centre catholique de radio et télévision (Ccrt) which he chairs in the French-speaking canton of Switzerland. CCRT was set up in 1957 on the mandate of the Bishops of French Switzerland, is the voice of the Catholic Church in audiovisual communication. Through an agreement with Radio télévision Suisse (Rts), that offers space on its channels, and in cooperation with Médiaspro, the Protestant media office of French Swizerland, CCRT is committed in "promoting and implementing religious, Catholic and ecumenical emissions", whilst "producing and co-producing audiovisuals at the service of Christian pastoral care and culture". "As regards the Catholic part spiega Litzler we organize 55 Masses a year and 17 TV Masses". In faithfulness to the ecumenical commitment, the CCRT, half of which is financed by Switzerland’s Roman Catholic Conference (RKZ), by RTS and by donations, offers, in addition to the liturgies, three radio and two television programs, broadcast by RTS channels. "It amounts to over 7 hours in the palimpsest", Litzler said. "It’s a unique situation in Switzerland". "Catholics and Protestants he added propose incomparable religious offer". Info: www.ccrt.ch.Belarus: the first congress of Catholic journalists The first Congress of Catholic journalists in Belarus will take place in Grodno next August 24-26. The invitation is addressed to all those working for Catholic websites, radio and TV networks as well as to Catholic journalists working for lay media. The forum’s programme envisages working groups, discussions, round tables and seminars on various aspects of journalism and its relationship with faith, the moral and ethical principal of Christian journalism and many other themes. The conference will be attended by several representatives of the media and of the Church. Info: www.catholic.by.ACS: 50 million copies for the Bible of the child "I always considered it a privilege to pave the path of faith for others". Thus Maria Zurowsky, international coordinator of the department for the Family Apostolate of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), celebrates the publication of the 50th million copy of "God speaks to his children". In only 33 years, ACN underlines in a release "the illustrated Bible for children became one of the most important projects of the Pontifical Foundation reaching out to many children in over 140 countries. "Still today – Zurowsky continues – we receive many moving and encouraging testimonies from world countries: from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Brazil, Ukraine and Peru", and "in all those places were Christians have been and still are persecuted, like in Pakistan, Iraq and China, the Kinderbibel is a sign of hope and provides to many missionaries a fundamental support to Catechesis of children". ACS founder, father Werenfried van Straaten, wanted to "bring the Word of God to all children in the world, also to those who are so poor that they can’t even afford a book". In 2012 the publication’s languages reached 172, with 4 new editions: in ch’ol, for a small population of the state of Chiapas in Mexico; in Sesotho, one of the eleven official idioms of South Africa and two from Lesotho and in two Kenyan languages Kikuyu and Pokot. It is expected that by the end of the year as many as 500 thousand copies will be printed. It was 1979 when the first Children’s Bible was donated by father Werenfried to the bishops of Latin America, during their Third General Assembly in Puebla, in Mexico. The book contains a selection of text from the Holy Scriptures adapted by German theologian Eleonor Beck to make the language more accessible. Readings are accompanied by the drawings of the Spanish religious Miren Sorne which during her years of work in Peru, discovered how much illustrations can help understand the Biblical text.
