Who cares?

We all should!

by Melton Stillman

This month, the Universal Catholic Church celebrates the 40th World Communication Day, one of the many outcomes of the Second Vatican Council. On December 4, 1963, the Decree on the Means of Social Communication was promulgated.  The first paragraph set in motion 40 years of - sometimes heartache, sometimes euphoria - dialogue with the ‘means’ of social communication: there have been 40 years of world communication day messages from three Popes; Apostolic Letters and documents from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and locally, the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and its Committee for the Media, the most recent being the pastoral letter on the Church and the media ‘Go Tell Everyone’ and its accompanying media kit.

What are the outcomes? Slowly, over those 40 years, the Catholic Church has, via the media, moved from being a fairly closed organisation to a Church that has understood the importance of social communications and what it can offer in spreading the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ. This has come at a price, though! The Church has suffered from scrutiny both from within and from without. The openness has chipped away at the margins and the Catholic Church has attempted to control the flow of information to the media. Secular reporters and religious reporters today are more discerning, more able to investigate scandal and cover-ups. It had to happen and that’s the risk you take when involved with the media.

Over the 40 years the media have become more thorough in investigating abuses and their underlying justification is that the public has a ‘right to know’. This is not a phenomenon for the Catholic Church alone. The Vietnam War, President Nixon’s Watergate, President Clinton’s sexual indiscretions, President Bush’s Iraq or Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib were media scoops that shocked the world and eroded confidence and trust.  For the Catholic Church, media use is a two -edged sword. The Church - indeed most politicians and people in general - mistrust the media, saying they twist the truth, putting their own spin on it. The media deliver information and news and the Catholic Church encourages involvement, so the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ can reach all the corners of the world. The world is indeed a global village on a much larger scale than Marshall McLuhan ever envisaged.

The Australian Church heeded the call to be involved in mass communications right from the beginning. In those early days, priests and religious were on radio and television. Fr Jim Maclaren had a talkback radio program for five hours every Sunday evening in Sydney; a priest of the Melbourne Archdiocese was on a popular Saturday evening television variety show, just to name two that come to mind.  These were good times for Catholics in the media in Australia except some of these priests and religious left their vocations. There was a chorus of protestors lamenting that these men and women had “lost their faith because of media involvement”.

I can remember that in the early 70’s a bequest from a friend of Bishop Muldoon (an auxiliary of Sydney) allowed him to set up a media centre at Homebush, Sydney. It produced radio spots and various radio specials for Easter and other special occasions, as well as eventually moving into television. A most famous series was the ‘good aye’ 60-second spots. The subject of the spots was a modern version of the gospel parables. They opened with a sidewalk sweeper in overalls, leaning on a broom as he addressed the audience with ‘good aye’ and then went on to give a modern rendition of a particular parable, concluding with an invitation to the audience to come to know Jesus Christ. The spots were shown in primetime viewing, giving the message a wide audience. Unfortunately, it caused a furious backlash. The furore built up over weeks until the spots were withdrawn and to this day nothing else has been as innovative. Evidently, Jesus could not be associated with an ordinary ‘bloke’. Or an ordinary bloke could not be a preacher or story teller!

Underlying these examples has been an attitude of mistrust of the media in the Australian Church at the highest of levels. Financial and material support (personnel) were lacking then and although more financial support and personnel have been injected in the last 5-10 years, not much has changed. Yes, we have a Bishops’ Committee for the Media  (now changed under last week’s restructuring of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference), a Catholic news outlet (CathNews), a film and television office, Aurora Community Television, Catholic Church TV Australia. The Perth Archdiocese showcased Archbishop Hickey, for some time, on Perth television during the nightly news cast, delivering his ‘today’s comment’, also on the world wide web. Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire rambles on in a loopy manner as a special regular guest on triple J’s Sunday Night Safran; Bunbury Diocese, since 1995, has used the government educational satellite network (Westlink) to offer several  programs a year to its diocese; Parramatta recently put the Bishop’s Lenten message on the Web; and I am sure there are other dioceses doing similar things.

So, the 6th Sunday of Easter is the 40th World Communications Day.  Who cares? Will it be acknowledged in the majority of our nation’s parishes? Has anyone read the Australian Bishops’ pastoral ‘Go Tell Everyone’? Honestly, I don’t think many Catholics would know it exists and this is a shame. More importantly, and targeting our parishes and their ‘good news’ stories of the grass roots people on the front line, is the parish media kit. Is there one in your parish? Do parish organisations have one?  I know my diocese sent one to every parish but I cannot see the results. I think most are filed away, in the too hard basket.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his message, calls the media to be responsible and to promote peace. He challenges them not to be “self-serving or solely profit-driven, losing the sense of accountability to the common good”. All Catholics are encouraged to form themselves to be critical users of the media; to participate in calling the media to accountability and public trust; and to dialogue with the media, particularly at the local level.

It really isn’t good enough to walk away, to wash one’s hands as it were. We all have a responsibility to spread the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ, and one of those means is via the world of social communications. We watch television, go the movies, read the newspapers, surf the web. I think we should do these things with a discerning and critical mind. Then we can start to address the challenges the Pope puts to us on the 40th World Communications Day.

Melton J. Stillman works at West Australia’s Diocese of Bunbury Pastoral Office, in Adult Faith Education, Liturgy, Ministry Training, Resource Development and Media. He has a special interest in the Catholic Church and its relationship with the media as well as how the technological advancements can be utilised to promote the various works and ministries of the Church.