The Role of the Social Media in the Catholic Church and Society By Father Francis Sunil Rozario
1. Introduction The role of social media is very challenging today. The Church related media has basis on the Gospel and the beatitudes. Social media has a prophetic role. Besides giving good news, the Church media’s role is to take up some pertinent issues that affect the lives of our people. Promoting understanding of how media work, how media affect our lives and how to use media wisely includes differentiating among the values, messages and meaning of life, as espoused by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and Regional media commissions in the country. Media education becomes the key. Communication is a key thread in the fabric of life. It shapes us mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually. Communication — including the Word made flesh and Holy Scripture — is the way in which God is made known to us, and the way we respond. Communication forms and sustains society and at the same time develops and maintains our individuality. It is the nervous system of the social and political body. As communication is central to any culture, so the tools of communication are essential to our highly technological culture. Our age is the age of media and instant communication. Electronic media, iPhone and smart phones have brought a new culture in our society altogether. Media today reach virtually every member of society with messages that reinforce a worldview that says technology can solve all problems. These media have been so woven into the economic fabric of our culture that to question the underlying 1
implications of the system appears destructive. In this environment, the churches can be a voice for greater responsibility in the use of technology to solve our world's problems. 2. India, A Secular Nation – Church’s Role in Media India is a pluralistic society and a secular nation. Our constitutional preambles are to preserve the secular nature of our countrymen and women. Church has a huge responsibility to become a voice of the minority and marginalized communities. We are less than 2% of 1.3 billion populations. Even though we are a minority, we manage a huge responsibility in the field of education, health care and socioeconomic development projects. During the natural disasters and other huge tragedies, our Church institutions take up responsibilities to take care of the victims. Caritas India and CRS have their own aims and objectives to reach out to the victims in time of crisis. At recent times, the media has played a huge role in disclosing some of the hidden facts to make the Church more transparent and accountable. Social media in a way is responsible to push some of the recent agendas of the Church towards transparency and standing by the side of the victims. Thus, the issues of reform in the Church, both Financial transparency and on Sexual abuse, social media has disclosed many hidden facts. No one is spared due to media attention and its investigative style of finding out those who perpetrated such violence. 3. Church’s Aims and objectives: Vision and Mission The CBCI has a long history of this demanding mission. Established in 1944, it has considered social communication as one of the important dimensions of its mission in India. The General Body meeting of the CBCI held in October 1966 in New Delhi established the Commission for Social Communications. Late His Eminence, Lawrence Cardinal Picachy, S.J., then Bishop of Jamshedpur, was its first Chairman. One of the first tasks of the Commission was “to arouse in the minds of Catholics the immense potentialities of mass media in the service of the Church.” Its objectives included: • •
Raising interest in the field of social communications To study present possibilities and to assist and coordinate diocesan efforts 2
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To integrate the work of the Commission with national endeavors. To network and coordinate with international bodies in social communications. It was also decided to appoint a National Director for the Commission. The Standing Committee entrusted to the Commission the task of discussing the feasibility and mode of celebrating the World Communication Day, established by Vatican II. In 1981, the Catholic news agency, called South Asian Regional News (SAR News), was started in New Delhi under the auspices of the Indian Catholic Press Association. The SAR News was recognized as an independent Catholic news agency. In 1987, to give expression to the views and opinion of the Christian community in the mainstream press, a weekly under the title, The Indian Currents, was started from Delhi under the leadership of Fr. John Vallamattam. In 1998, the CBCI decided to hand over the management of The Indian Currents to the Media House, a Capuchin publishing house based in New Delhi. In 1992, the Indian chapter of the international Catholic Association for Cinema, Radio and Television called UNDA-OCIC (later renamed Signis) was established. In 1994, Bishop Patrick D’Souza, the then Chairman of the Commission, presented a proposal to set up the National Institute of Social Communication, Research and Training (NISCORT). The project materialized in 1997, when the NISCORT was officially registered as the CBCI Society for Social Communications, Research and Training in September 1997. The General Body of the CBCI held in Trichur, Kerala, in 2004 chose for its theme “Church and Social Communications.” The Commission was actively involved in the planning and organization of this event and the preparation of a national pastoral plan for social communications. The Commission works in close collaboration with the Signis India, ICPA (Indian Catholic Press Association), the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, FABC OSC (Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference -- Office for Social Communications), Radio Veritas Asia, and other media bodies. In 2010 the Commission launched a program for formation in social communication in seminaries and religious institutes and published a 3-volume manual and other resources and conducted several training workshops. In 2010 as part of the initiative to restructure the CBCI, the Commission was renamed the CBCI Office for Social Communications. The CBCI Office for Social Communications (CBCI-OSC) today serves 166 dioceses divided into 13 regions. Each region is headed by Chairman Bishops and the Regional Secretaries for Communications. Annual meetings of the Commission and the regional chairman bishops and secretaries are held to study, report and plan 3
activities. In June 2012, the CBCI-OSC was shifted to NISCORT when the Secretary was appointed Director of NISCORT. Most Rev. Bishop Salvadore Lobo, Bishop of Baruipur is the present Chairman and Rev. Fr. Varaprasad Marneni, the Secretary. CBCI VISION To build a community of communities of all people in the spirit of Jesus Christ through social communications. MISSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
To proclaim the Good News through social communications. To train Church personnel and laity in social communications. To foster a culture of interactive communications at all levels. To cultivate media/public relations. To advance advocacy to uphold dignity and human rights of all, particularly the marginalized by creating public opinion. To promote universal media education. To publish/ produce people’s need based programs. To promote alternative media. To celebrate World Communications Day meaningfully. To mobilize and allocate human and financial resources. To promote accountability and transparency. To coordinate communication activities, programs and projects of the church at diocesan, regional and national levels. To assist regions and dioceses to plan and implement effective programs for pastoral communications. To empower media consumers, especially the youth to be appreciative, critical and discriminative users of mass media. To identify, train and promote young talents for Church's communications work and for the mainstream media. To dialogue with the media professionals and participate in deliberations on issues related to communications. 4
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To train personnel among the Church personnel and the community for creative interaction and participation in media. To coordinate the activities of the various media organizations for better networking and launching of new initiatives. To assist the other Commissions of the CBCI by providing communications assistance through consultancy and training. 4. Training in Media: Has this any priority? • Our Religious and priestly formation should pay attention to our formation system to train those candidates who have aptitude for media. There is hardly any attention given to the training of media personnel in the dioceses. Some Religious congregations tap the talents very early in their formation period and they are encouraged to be trained in journalism. Some Religious who are trained may give one or two term service to the diocesan concern and they are withdrawn for their own mission goals. • Our Seminary formation programs have very little scope for professional media courses. Just to keep everyone happy, some short term courses are conducted in the Seminary during pastoral formation, but they do not really train them to take up major media mission within the diocesan context. There is no scope for the laity to be trained as media personnel. Some who do take interest in media have to pay heavy price and manage on their own. • From my experience as the Editor of the Herald, I can vouch this that I have to manage with very little resources. Moreover, this responsibility is only secondary to my main commitment being Headmaster of a school. Because, it is the need of the Church, I take up this responsibility besides my own school management. • Parish Media Team (PMT) alignment program was planned for the Archdiocese to encourage within the respective parishes to help train the budding media personnel. How far has this been implemented and successful? • We do not have a professional approach to Data Collection and there is very little scope for investigative journalism. At the local level, collecting the data is important. We have to know the facts and figures before we can take up the issues and addressing them. Church media has to help through investigative journalism to remove darkness within the Church system.
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• Some of our daily and weekly Journals in India, i.e. UCAN (Union of Asian Catholic News), Matters India, are more organized and do their work more professionally. Some of the private media, The Church Citizens’ Voice by the laity have also taken up issue-based journalism. Church media in India is to give information of the events, not just those of Jubilees and Church Inauguration, but those of socio-economic and due to political stand in certain regions where our Church personnel and people become victims of Fundamentalist forces. The cover-ups and grey areas, that hinder Church to be true ‘Light and Salt’ of the earth should be addressed….and not to remain quiet. • The Church media in India has to learn from the Western media to become more transparent in dealings with the vulnerable people, i.e. children in school, in boarding/ hostels, in institutions and wherever the vulnerable of both sexes can become victims under Church related institutions. We should be aware that the Global Church is very vigilant in zero tolerance towards the perpetrators and justice to the victims. These parameters should be kept in mind. • The Church media should take up the challenges of the Beatitudes and challenge to love even our enemies, towards building bridges. Immigration is a huge issue – It has become a global concern. Church has taken the stand of ‘compassion’ and protecting the rights of the immigrants. Media is the voice of the innocents and those marginalized. 5. Some of the grey areas in Media Apostolate as spelt out in the Regional meetings: Weaknesses • Communication appears not a priority in some dioceses. • Lack of sufficiently trained personnel in some DCCs. • Absence communication commission in some dioceses. • Lack adequate initiative/support from diocesan authorities. • Complacency on the part of the communicators to benefit from the expertise available at the local and regional level. • Talented persons not identified and promoted. • Lack of professionalism in publications and AV productions. • Insufficient involvement and participation by the public in the training programs 6
• Lack of communication among the communicators and communication institutions. • Lack of visibility and availability of Church Leaders in mainstream media. • Insufficient involvement of clergy in communication apostolate. • Too many responsibilities assigned to DCC Directors/secretaries. • Frequent change/transfer of DCC personnel • Appointment of amateur personnel in some DCCs. • Insufficient promotion of productions/broadcasting and training programs. • No gender equality in the communication apostolate. Some Threats • Insufficient commitment to communication on the part of communicators. • Complacency and ignorance in communication apostolate. • Bias that secular media not meant for priests and religious. • Media are perceived more as a threat than a partner • Ignorance of the importance of media today. • Fear of Media as HI- TECH and expensive.
6. Some suggestions for consideration: • The Church should use the media (Mass media -- newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, cinema; modern social media -- Facebook, Twitter, Internet, blogs, websites, etc.) for sowing the seeds among the Christian, nonChristian, and secular audience, proclaiming the gospel from the 'housetops,' catechesis, and spreading the Christian values, justice, and charity. • Church personnel -- certain priests, the Religious, and members of the laity - need to be provided appropriate professional training and formation in the use of these media. They also need to be encouraged and, possibly trained, to write for the non-Catholic secular media. Church has a lot of resources and these should be utilized to give special training in media, based on Gospel values. Our catechesis, our Christian values, family life, matters of justice, and common good should be taken up by the Church media at local, regional and National level. • Seminarians, male and female candidates for Religious life, and high-school and college-going students need to be given appropriate orientation and formation on media use. This should be an ongoing matter.
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• Those lay personnel employed by the Church media, should be paid in a dignified way. They have to look after their families and education of children. Appropriate salary will help them to be dedicated to their work and not be eager to look for better jobs elsewhere. The proper and sufficient funding is a must for this purpose. There is plenty of money for constructing the impressive church, rectory, school, convent buildings, but no money for the media apostolate. • Those priests and religious trained in media should be given longer terms to work at desk and not move them at random. • Some of the ways to encourage our youth and all concerned to make use of social media: - Online communities: Social media offers much more space for congregations to actively engage with sermons by tweeting along, asking questions, sharing photos of church activities, or continuing discussions throughout the week, not just on Sundays. - Faith is a full-time activity and social media is part of our everyday lives, so it is not surprising that the two can overlap. For example, church members can use Twitter to share insights from the bible or stories of their lives within the organization, but they can also bring their Christian viewpoint to discussions on local, national and international politics. - Some useful comments by Church Leaders:
Pope Francis ✔@Pontifex • I am beginning a new journey, on Instagram, to walk with you along the path of mercy and the tenderness of God. • Some church leaders are noticing the opportunity social media creates to change their relationship with their members. We have watched the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, cathedrals, churches and both lay and ordained leaders join Twitter and other social media. These media offer opportunities for 24/7 engagement, whether experimental, or more profound, as in the recent revelations about Archbishop Justin Welby’s parentage. • Facebook groups can give clear social and connection value, especially for those in their 20s and 30s and parent/toddler groups. Churches have used photo and video sites such as Instagram and Vine to see what is going on 8
inside their buildings. They’ve even also created geocaches – markers on online maps as part of an international orienteering movement – in their grounds to encourage people to visit. “There is no limit other than our imaginations in how we might use these new communication opportunities to reach people.” • Social media is also helping to open up and humanize the church. The distance and anonymity created between people when they communicate online can help shed inhibitions in a way that is often blamed for abusive behavior. But it can also encourage people to become comfortable enough to ask questions about faith, especially via private messaging. The humorous nature of many social media posts can also act as a starting point for more serious discussions about religion. 7. Conclusion Although the print journalism is a very demanding and a professional job. To execute a prophetic mission through print journalism requires definite policies on the part of the diocesan administration. The directives given by the Commission for Media Apostolate give limited scope, hence taking up certain matters of justice, common good, based on Social teachings of the Church becomes very challenging to keep our commitment going within the parameter of Diocesan and Church administrative system. Francis Sunil Rosario is Former Editor of The Herald (weekly), Kolkata, India. He wrote this piece for the national consultation of the Indian laity at the Proggaloy Pastoral Centre, Kolkata, India (Feb. 9-11, 2019)
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