How much media power does the Catholic Church have?

Oct. 05, 2009, 09.30 Hrs (Jacob Srampickal sj):

The Catholic Church seems to be finally waking up to media challenges. The plethora of media channels within the Church is amazing. At one point if the Church had mostly printed materials, today audio visual materials on CDs are readily available. It is true most dioceses have media centres and co-ordinators. From 1891 the CMIs have been running a daily news paper Deepika, to highlight Christian interests. A charismatic retreat group runs Shalom, and a TV channel in Kerala to help the Christians pray better. But then do these give much media power to the Church at all? It does give, as Redemptoris Missio (No.33) says, an ad intra media power. These can help the Church educate her faithful as well as help them deepen their faith. But if the Church wants to let the public know what she really does and stands for, such media would be of little help, as the public would dump these as Christian media and would hardly care for these.

Redemptoris Missio speaks also of ad extra media power through which the non-Catholic world gets the right image of the Church. Probably this is an area the Church has not really woken up to fully. To realize this, it is important to set up at the top, a full-fledged public relations team that is well networked in the Church at national, regional, diocesan and even parish levels. The purpose of PR, like that of any PR of a company or a corporate firm, is to create and maintain the right image of the institution among the public.

The Jesuit curia in Rome gives a good example to media roles. The PR person, deals with the international media, is always available at his Rome headquarters where he also minds the sjweb, with daily updating.. He has assistants who are busy with international co-ordination and animation of the various provinces in countries worldwide, but are always in touch with the PR person back in Rome. Some dioceses of Brazil and Argentina have media teams of more than a 500 people, but all very beautifully co-ordinated by the PR person. Similarly some parishes have media teams of more than 100 people. This shows how seriously the diocese and parishes have taken media as a major area to renew Catholic life in the country.

For us in India a similar model is advisable. Hence in all of our Church organizations a knowledgeable, experienced and well trained PR person needs to head the media team. Under PR could be others specialized in training, production, research etc. Being available always in the office is a must for the PR person. Besides attending to important national events, s/he also needs to maintain a daily updated, interactive website to create a true, transparent and positive image of the Church.

Obviously, it is not just an individual’s work, but a team needs to work at it. Probably of all the media activities of the Church in India, PR is the most important function. Fundamentalist accusations on the Church like enforcer of conversions, destroyer of Indian culture, dependent on foreign money, importing a foreign religion etc must be countered with sufficient data to disprove the claims. Such misunderstanding in the public’s minds about the Church can be cleared only through proper PR. When any occasion of attacks or negative portrayals of the Church in media arise these persons must be prepared to answer queries and put down unnecessary speculations.

Once the Church is in the eye of the public she is forced to be more transparent as everything the Church is involved in comes to the knowledge of the people. The Church would be up to some challenges here as she just cannot hide anything away.

PR can be done by individuals, too. Probably today the most important and effective work in the ad extra area in India is done by certain people who write articles on Christian issues as well as highlight the Church’s vision on socio-political and cultural issues in secular newspapers, or produce occasional television or radio programmes, including the opportunities offered at Christmas and Easter times, to which millions are exposed. Church-run institutions like schools, colleges, hospitals, social service for the poorest -- with Mother Teresa as the shining model-- and other public service institutions are, by their very presence PR institutions par excellence for the Church, but they could also use more media tools in dispelling misunderstandings about the Church through the use of posters and other audio visual means.

In area of the media, institutes like XICA, Bombay, Chitrabani and the Educational Media Research Centre, Calcutta and similar others in several smaller towns, the prematurely closed New Delhi Video Festival where the best videos from the NGO sectors where showcased, films like Mathia and Yrwung showcasing tribal issues produced by the Salesians in the North East, youth magazines like The Teenager run by the St Paul Society, occasional national conferences on media organized by Church media persons, several local media initiatives for the general public, and above all, individuals with their immense talent in diverse media fields have contributed to a positive ad extra image for the Church.

Clearly in a huge country like India, much more needs to be done to strengthen media efforts with a more institutionalized thrust, making these standardized norms rather than occasional frays left to individual charism.

Jacob Srampickal sj, is Director, Communications Formation, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.