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Church media approach must be ‘open to times’
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| By Emma Logan
26 February, 2006 |
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| ARCHBISHOP HICKEY: "Church has to be open to dialogue". |
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The Catholic Church's approach to the media needs to be “open to the times”, says the Archbishop of Perth, Archbishop Barry Hickey.
“The Church has had a parochial approach to using the media, but a parochial approach has to be open to the times,' he says.
Archbishop Hickey is head of the Bishops’ Committee for the Media.
He was addressing religious leaders and media at the launch of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Pastoral Letter on the Church and Media at the new Notre Dame University campus.
“The Church has to enter dialogue, be open to questions and ready to comment,” he said.
The pastoral letter said today's Church faced “immense challenges” in the “field of human communication”.
“These are challenges we all need to embrace if we are truly to take up Christ's call to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth”, it said.
Australians spend an average of 51 hours a week consuming media such as television and internet.
“The Catholic Church must be part of this marketplace of ideas and regally accept opportunities to be quoted, seen or heard upon matters of consequence,” said Archbishop Hickey.
The launch included a panel discussion about the challenges facing the Church and its relationship with the media.
“The media is now more important than ever,” said Barney Zwartz,religious writer and chief sub-editor of the Age newspaper.
“I am not a Catholic but I think the Catholic Church is a tremendous force for good and the good news is that there is a revitalised interest in religion within secular media.
“There is a real and increasing openness towards including the Church's views on issues of the day.”
John Allen, the Vatican correspondent for the US National Catholic Reporter and CNN Vatican analyst, said the problem with secular journalism was the “particular way” in which it approached issues.
“Conflict is the stuff of journalism; it is what we get most excited over,” he said.
“And I think over time we have gradually embodied that principle within the Catholic media.
“We have come to think: 'With whom am I in conflict with, with whom do I disagree?’
“This is not a good approach.
“The relationship between the Church and the media is not a one-way street.”
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