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Rome (Agenzia Fides) – The Pontifical Council for Social Communications (PCCS) and Latin American Bishops' Conference (CELAM) have convoked two important meetings this March in which they will discuss the communications processes within the Church and the challenges presented to the Church and pastoral workers by the new forms of mass media.
In chronological order, the first encounter organized by CELAM will be divided into two parts. The first part will take place March 2-4 in Bogota, where a group of communications expert from CELAM will meet to analyze policies and communications proposals of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean for the Continental Mission called for at Aparecida. There will also be a revision of CELAM publications on communications and how they should be updated. Another important topic in the meeting will be the formation in seminaries, so that future priests may be properly formed in the area of social communications in order to respond to a society that is heavily influenced by the new technologies in the area of communications.
The second part of this preliminary meeting will take place March 4-6 and will be for leaders of communications commissions in the Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean. In this meeting, delegates and secretaries of the Bishops' commissions will reflect on the improvement of common resources and the articulation of the processes of communication in the Church. With this goal in mind, they hope to revise the structures of the departments of communications and enumerate several common elements for a pastoral ministry that unites efforts amidst a diverse spectrum of projects to be carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean. During this encounter, the delegates will be presented with the Global Directory of the Catholic Communications Projects – Inter Mirifica -, that the PCCS and CELAM have begun with the goal of having an updated reference that facilitates communication among pastoral ministers working in the area of social communications. The conclusions of this encounter will be made known to the Bishops' Conferences during the meeting to be held by the Secretary Generals in CELAM, March 10-12. The conclusions will also be presented in the Vatican by the Bishops in a seminary for Bishops on social communication.
Likewise, the PCCS has organized a meeting in Rome for Bishops who serve as Presidents of the Social Communications Commissions in the entire world, in a seminar entitled “New Perspectives on Church Communications - 'Changes in the technologies and culture of communications: A theological and pastoral reflection,'” which will take place March 9-13. According to the program of this seminar for Bishops, the first part of the meeting will include a series of conferences in which they will reflect on the challenges that are implied by the changes in communication for today's society and the Church, through an overview of the evolution of the mass media and how the Church's Magisterium has accompanied this process. The second part of the seminar will be dedicated to a reflection among the Bishops, in order to establish the basis for the new pastoral instruction that would follow Aetatis Novae.
Lastly, one the Bishops' meeting has ended, the communications leaders in CELAM and the PCCS will hold a meeting with the coordinators of the RIIAL, which has entered into a new phase. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 2/3/2009)
