AMERICA/BRAZIL - Catholic television networks: “Catholic communications must be supported as an educating and evangelizing service throughout the Church in Brazil”

Aparecida (Agenzia Fides) – Catholic television producers who collaborate with the various dioceses came together April 27 in Aparecida (SP), to discuss the possibility of forming a network for exchange programs. The meeting took place in the Redemptorist monastery on the premises of the National Shrine. In a note sent to Fides, we read that the Archbishop of Belo Horizonte (MG), Bishop Walmor Oliveira, who attended the meeting, recalled that the various TV networks should unite because they have a similar condition. "The fact that they are linked to the diocese and have an educational character unites us, despite our differences." He added that "Catholic communications must be supported as an educating and evangelizing service throughout the Church in Brazil."
It was on the basis of this specificity that the proposal was made for the exchange of material produced by the TV via a network that would be created to facilitate the production of programs of common interest. In addition to the Archbishop of Belo Horizonte, the meeting was also attended by the head of the communications sector of the Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CNBB), Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Archbishop Orani João Tempesta; the Secretary General of the CNBB, Bishop Dimas Lara Barbosa; the advisor to the Communications Department of the CNBB, Sr. Elis Fogolari; Archbishop of Belém (PA), Archbishop Alberto Taveira; and the Archbishop of Aparecida (SP), Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis. Also present were representatives of the various TV stations: Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, 3rd Millennium from Maringá (PR), Nazareth from Belém (PA), and TV Aparecida from Aparecida (SP). (CE) (Agenzia Fides 29/04/2010)